Sunsets In Eternity
by standinginsanity
Summary: Bradin wins the heart of Playa Linda's darling-- read about their typical but sometimes very atypical story through lots of banter and appearances from Callie, Adam, and the rest of the Beach House crazies.
1. The Library

Adults and kids alike scrambled in a frenzy around a clustered countertop—it's breakfast time at the beach house in Playa Linda.  
  
Derrick watches with widened eyes as Johnny scoops cookies and cream ice cream into his bowl of frosted flakes.  
  
"He _cannot_ have ice cream for breakfast!" Nikki obviously disapproves.  
  
"It's the closest thing we've got to milk." Johnny replies as he avoids Nikki's glare.  
  
"I'm sorry Nikki, I promise by 8 o' clock tonight, the fridge will be restocked with nothing but pure nutrition." Ava looks at the haphazard crowd in the sunny kitchen, as she tacks groceries onto her long mental to- do list.  
  
"Aunt Ava?" Derrick had abandoned his ice-cream cereal and now appeared in the kitchen with a handful of books. "I need to go to the library."  
  
Susannah and Johnny exchange glances—they knew what each other was thinking. This kid acts way too old for his own good—he's got a soul mate, he wants to go to the library during the summer... isn't he supposed to be nine?  
  
"The library?" Jay repeats as though it was a mythical sea monster that he hasn't heard of yet.  
  
"Yeah, you know, library? Where there are, like, books?" Nikki speaks slowly to make sure Jay can understand.  
  
"I've finished my quota for the week!" Derrick announces proudly. The local library had a summer reading program, where kids could collect prizes each week for reading a certain number of books.  
  
"Oh honey..." Ava's day is already jammed-pack. Her pieces need to be fitted to the models today, she needs to speak with her fabric supplier; and she also was planning to sit down to brainstorm for her winter line...  
  
Susannah knows that Ava really needed to work today and went to her rescue—hey, when in doubt, delegate responsibilities, first rule of good parenting.  
  
"Nikki," Susannah turns to the girl, all the while noticing that one of these days she really needed to teach her about the correct methods of cosmetic application, "why don't you take Derrick?"  
  
"Sorry," Nikki immediately declines, "I've got to be at the surf shop today. The display windows need polishing, right Jay?"  
  
Cameron is working at the Smoothie Planet today and Nikki doesn't want pass up her chance at a reenactment of "Fatal Attraction."  
  
"Uh... sure." Jay is too engrossed in the sports pages to really hear the conversation.  
  
Susannah raises an eyebrow, "Well then, Bradin! You don't have anywhere to go today!"  
  
"I..." Bradin looks at Jay, hoping that he could use the surf shop as an excuse as well, but Jay is not meeting his pleading eye. For Christ's sake, the shop is a business, not a day care—one orphan a day!  
  
Ava skates over to her nephew, and quietly says, "Bradin, I'd really appreciate it if you'd take Derrick to the library. You know, I never see you two spend any time together anymore. And I think Derrick would really like it if you took him."  
  
Bradin doesn't attempt to suppress the sigh that escaped his mouth.  
  
"Ten bucks," Ava bargains, hectic times call for desperate measures.  
  
"Derrick, let's go." Bradin pops up from the couch that he was slumped against.

* * *

Bradin trudges behind his younger brother and his "soul-mate", Martha, a skinny girl with untamed frizzy brown hair as they prance down the sidewalk towards the library on the boardwalk.  
  
As they enter the contemporary building through glass double doors, a wave of cold air strikes Bradin in the face, at the temperature difference, he shoves his hands into the pockets of his board shorts as he follows the two ankle-biters into the children's section.  
  
He isn't really sure where he is going—it was his first time at the Playa Linda library since he had been spent most of his time with Sarah, who is not a big reader.  
  
But apparently, Derrick is a regular here. Without hesitating, he prances towards the information desk, where a sign made of construction paper indicated "Summer Reading Program Check-in"  
  
In fact, the young pair is even greeted on a first name basis, "Hey Derrick! Martha!"  
  
Bradin glances at the girl behind the information desk, he had never seen her around before, but it took him only one glimpse to notice that she is beautiful.  
  
As he stands behind his younger brother, Bradin is silenced by the girl's exotic features. One of the reasons that he doesn't mind being in Playa Linda so much is the town's supply of good-looking people. But this girl has something different about her beyond the standard pretty blonde beach town babe.  
  
Her long straight hair is on the darker side of maple with sandy highlights, and her eyes are an almond shape that indicated some sort of Asian background, but the pools within are a rare shade of hazel tinged with green-grey. The girl also dons the trademark tan of the residents of the seaside town.  
  
The girl notices Bradin's stare, and she meets it undauntedly. Rather, she looks at him as though he is somewhat strange, "Yes?"  
  
Bradin was lost in the extraordinary light of her eyes, before he realized how idiotic he must look—a 16 year old standing in the children's section of the library surrounded by murals of _Alice in Wonderland_, _James and the Giant Peach_, and _Clifford the Big Red Dog._  
  
"Uh... um... I..." Damn! Who knew that a month's venture in juvenile misdemeanors could corrode his brain so much that he can't even piece together a sentence.  
  
In a polite voice, the girl speaks again, "The young adult's section is on the other side of the lobby. Or were you looking for the search engine computers?"  
  
Derrick examines his older brother mildly before coming to his rescue, "That's my other older sibling, Bradin." He informs the girl matter-of- factly. Lea was used to seeing Derrick with Nikki, the known bibliophile of the family. "He walked me here today because no one else had time."  
  
The girl smiles kindly at Derrick, "Oh." Bradin notices that her smile was the kind that showed off the top row of her front teeth, a smile the exuded warmth, and lit up her face.  
  
She maintains her smile as she graciously greets him, "Hi, Bradin." His name rolls off her tongue with the smoothest inflection.  
  
"Lea," Martha refers to the girl behind the desk, then drops her voice two notches, "gives us extra leftover prizes sometimes," explaining their insistence on the precise timing of their library visit.  
  
Lea seizes Martha and Derrick's record sheets, and they scurry off towards the shelves to search for new titles.  
  
Bradin hangs around behind them near the information desk awkwardly.  
  
Lea swiftly counts up their reading record sheets by stamping it with a Winnie-the-Pooh rubber stamp.  
  
"The other side of the lobby. The young adults' section?" She repeats again, giving Bradin a "You're-just-going-to-stand-there?" look through her dark eyelashes. "The magazines are there too." She adds after a pause in a dry manner.  
  
"Oh... I..." Bradin chides himself silently—though he wasn't a prodigy like his younger siblings, he doesn't like the idea of being belittled either, "was just trying to think of the title of the book I wanted to read. Uh, is there anything you suggest?"  
  
Lea raises one perfectly groomed eyebrow.  
  
Bradin peers at the title which laid towards the side on the desk in front of Lea, _A Midsummer's Night Dream,_ "A Shakespeare tragedy, maybe?" He grasps at withering strands of knowledge in his memory.  
  
"I actually find the Shakespeare comedies to be overrated. Humor in old English escapes me. This is assigned summer reading for advanced 11th grade English." Lea knew she sounded like a nerdy know-it-all, but in which universe are fairy Queens and donkeys tragic?  
  
"You're going to be a junior?" Bradin is entering the 11th grade himself.  
  
"Mm hm, at Playa Linda High?" Lea answers as she stuffed some goody bags for Derrick and Martha, seemingly in contemplation.  
  
"Me too."  
  
"Oh," Lea finally looks up from the ballooned goody bags. "And you're looking for some summer reading... Do you like Dickens?"  
  
Bradin's expression must have been pretty blank, because Lea answers her own question, with a soft chuckle, "apparently not!"  
  
Bradin can feel a blush creep towards his face.  
  
"Charles does tend to be a bit verbose," Lea reassures him breezily.  
  
"First name basis?" Bradin can't repress the smirk.  
  
Lea smiles wryly, "a shameless exhibition of insolent self-importance."  
  
"Do you always use big words like that?" Bradin catches himself searching for a dictionary.  
  
"Only in the library," Lea's light eyes flashes as she grinned at Bradin. "Well if you prefer lighter reading, how about Tom Sawyer? Mark is a bit less prolific compared to Charles, but a classic gentleman none the less."  
  
By now it is obvious to Bradin that Lea is incredibly smart. He has never met anyone their age who refers to classic authors by their first names. In the past, he had always tried to keep a healthy distance from the brainy kids because they always seemed so severe about their intellect, but something about Lea told Bradin that she knows not to take herself too seriously.  
  
And she proves it by saying, after a slight pause, her grin turning impish, "Or there's always Harry Potter..."  
  
The frown on Bradin's face elicits a laugh from Lea. "You're not a big reader are you?"  
  
With a slight shake of the head, Bradin changes the subject before Lea introduced him to another one of her literary acquaintances. "So...you've lived around here long?"  
  
"All my life!" Lea answers in a sing-song voice.  
  
"But I haven't seen you around much," Bradin gestures towards the library windows that reveal the beach and the water that was right outside the building.  
  
"Yeah, if you don't spend every minute of your waking hour at the beach you shall be a social pariah—rule #18 in _Proper Conduct of Playa Linda Citizens."_ Lea vaguely skirts the question.  
  
Bradin laughs, "What, you prefer to spend most of your time hanging out with uh... Charles and Mark?"  
  
Lea crooks her neck in contemplation before answering, "not exactly,"  
  
Bradin grins at her roundabout admission.  
  
Derrick and Martha stagger back towards the information desk with an armload of books each. Lea checks the books out for them, then hands them their goody bags. From her revolving chair, she leans towards the tiny tots, "I slipped a little something extra in there." She gives the two a mischievous wink.  
  
As Bradin, Derrick and Martha exit the children's section, Callie strolls in from an entrance on the other side, just in time to catch Bradin's fading back figure.  
  
"Hey Callie," Lea calls out to her substitute for the afternoon shift. Apparently, lots of Playa Linda kids volunteer at the library during the summer—free air conditioning and it looked good on college applications. Two birds, one stone.  
  
"Was that Bradin Westerly?" Callie asks in a hushed pining voice.  
  
"Should I have alerted the National Enquirerer?" Lea muses. It suddenly hit her that the boy was the same one that Callie used to talk about.  
  
"Lea!" Callie admonishes her friend, after their pseudo-date that ended with Bradin running to Sarah, Callie had decided that it just wasn't meant to be—but it still doesn't stop her from gawking when given the chance.  
  
"Callie!" Lea imitates her tone as she stuffed her belongings into a sky blue cotton canvas messenger bag. "Anyways didn't you say that he's an ass?"  
  
"Well, he's off the Dateable Boys list, but he's still cute, and he's really okay." Callie tries to explain that she and Bradin have reconciled  
  
"That's supposed to be the panacea for his bad decisions?" Lea is unconvinced  
  
"pana-what?"  
  
"Callie, you should spend more time on your SAT vocabulary." Lea advises  
  
"Don't you just feel bad for him? They lost their parents." Callie isn't about to let Lea change the subject on her.  
  
"Oliver Twist was an orphan"  
  
"Who's Oliver Twist? And what does that have to do with anything?"  
  
"Didn't make him a jerk."  
  
"So... You don't think he's hot?"  
  
Lea is a bit exasperated. "If you like the Aaron Carter type." Lea herself prefers the Chad Michael Murray type though.  
  
"He surfs"  
  
"My brother surfs."  
  
"Your brother's hot."  
  
"I did not need to hear that."  
  
"He is!"  
  
"Brother! Sibling! SAME PARENTS?" Lea emphasizes.  
  
"Lea," Callie sighs, "You just don't understand the value of good eye candy" Inwardly, Callie has always been irked by Lea's lack of interest in boys, seeing as how Lea was undoubtedly the prettiest girl amongst the Playa Linda locals.  
  
In a nut shell, Lea was as beautiful as Lana Lang from that _Smallville_ show and smarter than Joey Potter from _Dawson's Creek,_ nothing short of a really well-read Superman should be good enough for her.  
  
"Callie!" Lea imitates her exaggerated tone, "God forbid if I look for some substance underneath a good tan."  
  
"So you'll admit Bradin's a hottie." Callie states rather than requests.  
  
Seeing as how Callie seems to be determined not to let Lea leave unless she succumbs, Lea sighs, monotonously, Lea gives Callie what she wants. "Sure, sure, Bradin oh Bradin, he's a modern day Narcissus."  
  
"Narcissist?" Callie is confused  
  
"Narciss-us," Lea continues to her Cliff notes version of the myth. "He's the origin of the word. Greek pretty boy who dissed a nymph and eventually withers into a flower after staring at his own reflection for, like, an eternity."  
  
"Bradin's not like that!" Callie defends the boy, despite the similarity the story had to her own situation—so is Lea calling her a nymph?  
  
Lea gives a dismissing shrug and wave as she skirted past Callie's human barrier. "Have fun stuffing goody bags! I'll see you around!" She has more important things to do than a debate about the merits of Bradin Westerly.  
  
Swinging her bag over her shoulders, Lea walks out the double doors, bracing herself for the wave of heat that's about to hit her.  
  
She's about to head to her Freelander when suddenly, someone grabs her arm. Her heart skips a beat, and Lea whirls around to find herself face to face with the logo of a white surfing T-shirt stretched across a chest in the early developmental stages of muscles. Lea raises her eyes to find herself staring into a pair of crystal blue orbs.  
  
She rolls her eyes and shifts the weight of her bag, "I don't know about the laws in the-land-of-where-you-came-from, but in California, stalking is illegal."

* * *

A/N: My My, I made a lot of mistakes didn't I? That's what happens when the author can't decide on a verb tense. I'd pay you to read and review, but I'm not rich. But I will give you my undying gratitude... 

**melodie568-** [[Confetti & Hugs]] You are my first reviewer and the first receiver of my well, undying gratitude! Thank you for pointing out my mistakes, I have gone back and corrected them. Hope you keep with the story, and yes, Chad Michael Murray is a delicious combination of molecules (grin)


	2. Breakfast with the Dead Poet

Disclaimer: I forgot this on chapter 1, and I really don't feel like going back to add it so for those who are offended, I'm sorry. Oh what was the disclaimer again? Right, I don't own Summerland, Bradin, or any of them. They belong to WB, Aaron Spelling, or whoever, but just not me. I don't own Lea either (grin) this story has a life of its own. [creepy]

* * *

"Look, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Bradin quickly let go of her wrist.  
  
"I wonder if that line will work if I jumped out of your closet with a butcher knife." Lea mutters as she heads towards her SUV.  
  
"Nice car," Bradin remarks about Lea's Rutland red 2004 Freelander, HSE model.  
  
Lea doesn't answer but just pops open the back door of the SUV to throw her bag inside. She glares at Bradin as he took the liberty to settle into the back of her car.  
  
Bradin examines her face, noticing that she is extremely hot when she is mad, but that was an attribute he'd have to explore later. "Hey, what's with all the sudden anger?"  
  
"I didn't realize it before, but I've heard about you, Bradin Westerly." Lea calls him by his first name.  
  
Bradin seems surprised at this, and he raises in brows in a quizzical manner.  
  
"Callie is a friend of mine, and what you did to her was pretty shady."  
  
Bradin winces at the reminder of not his greatest moment. "Look, it was dumb, but Callie and I have worked it out so give a guy a break alright?"  
  
Lea eyes him warily.  
  
Bradin hops off of her car and raises his two arms in surrender as a show of good faith. "Look let's just start over. I'm Bradin Westerly." He sticks out his hand.  
  
"Lea Noel." Lea reluctantly complies with the handshake.  
  
"Well it's nice to meet you Lea," Bradin gives her a winning smile, "Would you happen to be a... literary enthusiast by any chance...?"

* * *

The beach house crew is filing down the boardwalk for breakfast at a beachside cafe.  
  
Erica is joining them this morning; she and Jay are leading the troops, followed by Susannah and Ava who are discussing some points for a meeting later that day with a possible distributor.  
  
Nikki and Derrick are skipping along merrily, being watched by Johnny out of the corner of his eye as he stares at Ava's back figure, and the group is trailed by a scowling Bradin—who is still half sleep walking.  
  
Suddenly, Johnny notices that Nikki and Derrick have pranced off ahead of them quickly, "Hey!"  
  
Bradin focuses his eyes and sees that his younger siblings are running towards the terrace tables of the café they had planned to dine.  
  
"Lea!" Derrick exclaims happily as he nears a table occupied by a lone figure.  
  
At the sound of her name, Lea tears her attention away from the novel that she is consumed in, to be greeted by the beaming face of a prodigious young boy.  
  
"Good morning Derrick!" She quickly notices the lagging figure behind the short boy, "Hey Nikki! How'd you like Gone with the Wind?"  
  
"Um..." Nikki remembers the disaster that happened when she tried to impose the characters of the novel onto real life situations, "I think I'm going to try mysteries next time..."  
  
Lea grins, supposing that the epic romance's length had daunted the young reader. "Gonna take your stab at Nancy Drew?" She suggests a different, lighter genre of books to the freckled girl.  
  
Ava stands behind her wards, furtively examining their conversation partner—a fresh-faced girl who looks well, sane. And she reads, having a brain is always a good sign.  
  
After the lurid photograph incident and the Bradin's psychopath girlfriend, Ava is beginning to understand why parents are so wary of their children's friends.  
  
Derrick looks up earnestly at Ava, "Aunt Ava! This is Lea! From the library!"  
  
Lea inwardly winces at those words just because it bears all the implications of a boring librarian who wears her hair in a bun. But outwardly, she returns Ava's warm smile, "Good morning."  
  
"Hi, I'm Ava Gregory, Derrick's aunt. But call me Ava." Ava introduces herself, as the rest of the clan catches up.  
  
Frankly, Lea is slightly frightened by the mass of people congregating around her one-seat table, but she does her best to remain calm as she glances around the crowd, until she notices a familiar face, "Erica!"  
  
"Lealana," Erica greets the girl by her whole name. "I haven't seen you around lately!" She leans forward to give Lea a one arm hug.  
  
"It's been busy..." She glances at the man on Erica's arm, his face is familiar to her yet she can't quite place a name to it.  
  
"This is Jay Robertson," Erica introduces her boyfriend.  
  
And it hits Lea, "the surfer!"  
  
Jay gives her a wry smirk.  
  
All the members have now assembled near Lea's table. Ava proceeds to introduce Susannah and Johnny as Bradin slowly fell in line.  
  
"And this is the big brother," Ava says as she put her hand on Bradin's shoulder.  
  
"Bradin," Lea nods in acknowledgement. "We've met." She smiles.  
  
"Hey," The sight of Lea wipes the grumpy scowl on Bradin's face off almost instantaneously.  
  
Jay, Erica, and Susannah have gone and settled at a nearby table, and are looking at menus. Johnny is leading Ava, Derrick and Nikki away.  
  
"The bed head look is really sexy Bradin," Lea smirks as she points out the a piece of hair that's sticking out of place.  
  
Bradin feels a slight blush spreading across his cheek, and self- consciously runs his hands through his hair. Hearing Lea say the word sexy and his name in the same sentence was sending blood into all the wrong places in his body.  
  
Bradin looks Lea as he ponders how anyone can look that good this early in the day.  
  
She is sitting barefoot in a plastic beach lawn chair; her baby-blue cotton shorts offset the tan on her shapely legs, and he notices that her crisp pale yellow tank-top showed off toned arms that hinted at biceps, which surprises him slightly. He didn't think that page turning would count as a weight-lifting work out. The early sun is bouncing off of her shiny wind- blown long hair, and her cheeks maintain a rosy hue. She is more radiant than he had remembered from the library.  
  
Bradin catches a glimpse of a paperback that laid on the wooden table, "Early morning date with William?" He jokes, recalling her "personal relationship" with the dead poet.  
  
"No." Lea blinks in fake exasperation, but she couldn't fight off the smile that crept onto her face. "William was more of a blind date. Charles is really my favorite love affair, in spite of his long-windedness." Lea grins as she reaches for her tattered copy of A Tale of Two Cities.  
  
"Don't you do anything other than read?"  
  
"Sure I do. You've just been lucky enough to catch me at my best... twice." Lea flippantly replies.  
  
"Don't you hang out with, you know, people?"  
  
"And what did you think William and Charles are? Really eloquent chimpanzees?" Lea's voice is laced with sarcasm.  
  
"I mean living people?" Bradin rephrases his question. He enjoys how Lea always keeps him on his toes with her quick remarks.  
  
But before Lea could quip another overly articulate answer, a masculine voice rings out from behind.  
  
A tall handsome boy with spiky dirty blonde hair and flashing green eyes approaches them. "Lea," the boy casually places his hand on her shoulder.  
  
Bradin watches as he felt a weird churn in his stomach. Guess that answers the question about hanging out with living people.  
  
The stranger quickly notices Bradin and he gives Bradin the once-over.  
  
"Oh," Lea looks back and forth from the stranger to Bradin with an amused look on her face. "This is J.B., J.B., this is Bradin, he just moved here." As Lea introduces them, she gets up from her seat.  
  
As Lea stands to full height, Bradin notices how petite she is, which allows him to tack on "adorable" to a list of growing adjectives he used in his head to describe her.  
  
"Hey man," J.B. offers Bradin his hand good naturedly.  
  
After the civilities, J.B. turns to Lea, "You ready to go?"  
  
"Yeah sure." She leans towards the chair that Bradin is standing near and picks up a large navy duffel bag, and her flip-flop sandals that rested on top of them. Bradin couldn't help noticing her scent—it was different from Sarah's flowery perfume. Lea's body exuded a faint, refreshing coconut and lime fragrance.  
  
J.B. immediately shoulders the duffel bag for her, as she drops the sandals on the ground to slide them on, putting one hand on J.B. to help her keep her balance.  
  
"Nice meeting you, Bradin. Maybe I'll see you around the beach sometime." J.B. says as he turns towards the boardwalk.  
  
"Bye Bradin," Lea quickly follows suit.  
  
Bradin stands still as he watched the two retreating figures in the morning sun. Lea looks extremely petite as the two walk away, pushing and shoving each other good naturedly before Lea leaps onto the boy's back, forcing him to carry her. Their exhibitions of affection makes Bradin's head spin. He imagines what it'd be like to feel Lea's weight on him, hell, he wonders what it'd feel like to just touch her.  
  
_Probably wonderful._  
  
The beach house crew is ready to order, and Ava glances over to her nephew, "Bradin? Do you know what you want?"  
  
"Uh..." Braiden plops down next to Johnny at the wooden picnic table and examines the menu, asking himself in his head what he would like.  
  
And the voice in his head speaks when spoken to... and it whispers...  
  
_Lea Noel._

* * *

a/n: Alas! More mistakes! I swear I'm a fluent English speaker! 


	3. Too Cool For School

Disclaimer: Almost forgot this! I don't own them, the TV does [grin]

* * *

Summer doesn't last forever—even in Playa Linda. It is the first day of school.  
  
As Bradin strolls into Playa Linda High, skateboard in hand, he can't help but notice all the expensive cars parked in the parking lot. One of the convertibles reminds him of Sarah's car, except that it can't be, because she had gotten sent off to boarding school after the Mexico escapade. The rest of the summer had been comparatively uneventful.  
  
In the absence of Sarah, Bradin managed to meet a couple of other kids from around the area—though none of them were anything more than acquaintances.  
  
Much to his disappointment, he also didn't see Lea around since the morning at the café, according to Callie, she had gone on a last vacation with her family before school starts.  
  
He silently watches the students milling about the sunny campus. The place looks like a scene from a movie made for teenagers starring pop stars and heart throbs.  
  
Bradin makes his way towards a row of metal lockers to look for his own.  
  
He doesn't really have anything to put in it, seeing as how it was the first day of school and they don't have any books yet. But Bradin feels awkward just standing there, and there is still 15 minutes until first period—even being from Kansas, he knows that being the first kid in the classroom makes you anything other than cool.  
  
He turns his locker combination as slowly as possible as he scans his surroundings again. The walls are covered with colorful posters ranging from Chess club meeting notices to football tryouts posters.  
  
Football. He used to play sports at his old school, and in his head he contemplates joining the team here, Jay had warned him that surfing will dull out once winter rolls around.  
  
As Bradin stuffs his bagged lunch into his locker, he notices that the hallway had erupted into an excited buzz. He takes a step back from his locker to find out what was going on.  
  
A tall, lean but defined figure saunters towards his direction from the opposite end of the hallway. Bradin focuses his eyes, and recognizes the form—it was J.B., the guy he met with Lea at the café before.  
  
J.B. gives guys high-fives as he ambles down the hallway, varsity jacket hanging over one arm, groupies in wake. It didn't take Bradin long to figure out that J.B. was the big man on campus.  
  
Sure enough, Lea is at his side, looking very sweet in a denim skirt, mint- colored off-shoulder top and sneakers. She looks slightly more tanned than when Bradin last saw her, and her bronzed skin seems to glow in the artificially lighted hallway. Behind them trails a group of averagely good looking students, and altogether they look very much the proverbial popular kids.  
  
Lea arrives at school with J.B. half excited but half dreading class. Don't get her wrong, she likes school, after all, she is smart.  
  
But organized education seems like such a waste of time to her, she really could care less about molecules and the easterly winds when there are volumes of classic literature waiting to be read.  
  
Lea heads towards her locker, saying hello to a couple friends on the way. When she arrives at the metal tower, she opens the locker without bothering with the combination.  
  
"How'd you do that?" An vaguely familiar voice descends towards her from nearby.  
  
Lea pulls her head out of her locker and looks around.  
  
Bradin shuts his own locker door, revealing himself to Lea.  
  
"Hey, Bradin!" Lea greets him with a classic smile. "We get assigned the same lockers every year... so," she pulls her locker door back to expose to Bradin the inside of the lock, which was jammed with hardened gum, "I jammed mine to stay unlocked. I never keep anything other than books in there anyway and if anyone wants to steal my calculus book, they're welcomed to it—gives me an excuse not to do homework."  
  
Bradin gives her a look of feigned reproach, "Aren't you just the juvenile delinquent."  
  
"I know, I know, it's really pathetic. I'm ashamed at my own elementary level of vandalism." Lea rolls her eyes in self-disgust.  
  
"So is the entrance performance an everyday thing?" Bradin kids lightly.  
  
Lea gives him a puzzled look as she sips from her coffee tumbler.  
  
"You and your boyfriend taking the red carpet walk?" Bradin knows that Lea couldn't be so modest that she didn't know that she and J.B. are at the apex of this little high school hierarchy.  
  
"Boyfriend?" Lea's bewildered expression is most convincing.  
  
A moment of silence passes by, then Lea burst out into laughter, "Oh my _god_, J.B.? No no no no! Ugh, NO!"  
  
And now it's Bradin's turn to be confused.  
  
When Lea finally calms down, she is teary-eyed from laughing so hard. "J.B.," she pauses again to stifle a giggle, "J.B. is my brother!" Then her face takes on a slightly disturbed look at the thought of dating her own brother.  
  
"Wha—?"  
  
"That J.B. right?" Lea gently turns Bradin around to point at the boy who is standing a slight distance away from them, still surrounded by a horde of groupies. Bradin felt a slight tingle down his spine at her soft touch, and he could smell the apple scent of her shampoo.  
  
"My brother, J.B. Noel. He's a senior, he plays on the basketball team. His friends are a little stereotypical, but they're nice enough."  
  
Bradin raises one eyebrow.  
  
"Oh please, you scarcely look the high school outcast." Lea retorts as she brushes off the silent accusation. Judging from Callie's reaction to the boy, she is sure that Bradin will have his own following by the end of the day. "I'm sure girls will be falling over themselves over you." Lea flashes Bradin a good-natured grin.  
  
Bradin suppresses the urge to ask if Lea feels that way too. Instead he nonchalantly mentions, "So if it's not J.B., who's the lucky guy?" Bradin is leaning against his closed locker as Lea tosses random objects into hers.  
  
"I don't know if I'd call him lucky, but in any case, he's nonexistent. I don't have a boyfriend." Lea dismisses the question.  
  
Bradin looks at the pretty girl, truly amazed at how she is really oblivious to all the looks that guys are giving her as they passed her in the hallway. Before he can catch his own bluntness, it spills out of his mouth, "You're kidding?"  
  
"Hardly," Lea answers with a slight huff, "probably because I don't put out." She catches herself at the beginning of a rant, "but I'm sure you don't want to hear about my strangely feminist ideals about sex and romance, plus there's only 8 minutes before first period, so I'll spare you."  
  
Lea reaches into the back pocket of her denim skirt and pulls out a folded piece of paper to examine. She glances at Bradin and the realization that it is his first day in this zoo suddenly materializes, "Hey, do you know how to get to your class?" She asks kindly.  
  
Bradin looks at his own schedule, "Uh... Economics?'  
  
"Andersen?"  
  
Bradin nods in accordance  
  
"Me too!"  
  
"It must be my lucky day." Bradin smiles dryly.  
  
"Actually, it's not. Andersen's the oldest, most boring, and ultimately loveless teacher in this school. I was hoping not to get him." Lea wrinkles her nose as she slams close her locker and leads the way towards their classroom.

* * *

As the day went by, it turns out that they also had third period biology together. Lea was right about Bradin attracting attention himself, and they didn't get to talk much at lunch, to Bradin's dismay. There are lots of good looking girls at his new school, and he can't say that he doesn't like their attention, but after seeing Lea first thing in the morning, everyone else paled in comparison.  
  
It was also tiresome how he got the new kid treatment, even though he had anticipated it. He couldn't help but think about how Lea would just talk to him, while everyone else seemed to be fishing for answers, to see if he's the right type they want to include in their group.  
  
Before he knew it, Bradin was crossing the quad towards his last class when he noticed Lea heading in the opposite direction towards the parking lot.  
  
"Dipping into juvenile delinquency?" He smirks as they brush pass each other.  
  
Lea looks up at him and blinks innocently, "Whatever do you mean?"  
  
"Tell me which sixth period class is held in the parking lot, I'd like to switch into it too." Bradin replies—Lea isn't the only one who can come up with good quips.  
  
Lea chuckles, "I have sixth period P.E.—they arrange it that way for the kids who play on sports teams so it doesn't cut into class periods when they have to leave for away games. But since all the kids get their physical activity at practice after school anyway, it's more like a free period. We usually just hang out in the parking lot." She explains as she jingles some car keys in her hand.  
  
"So what are you, like a cheerleader?" Bradin does some quick deducing in his head—popular pretty girl, it seemed like the right formula.  
  
Lea's eyes widens in a mix of dismay and hilarity, "_No_, I'm not _like _a cheerleader. I run cross country, at least in the fall."  
  
A couple stray students pass by, the boys give Lea appreciative looks, one of them even whistles, and Bradin had to fight down an urge to glare.  
  
Lea merely rolls her eyes, smiled dryly and says hello to her peers, she turns back to Bradin "They're on the basketball team with J.B., they enjoy making my life miserable."  
  
Bradin is blown away by her naïvete, but finds it desperately attractive at the same time. "Yeah, sure."  
  
Before the conversation goes on any further, the bell rang, "Tardy on your first day, Westerly! Be glad I'm not a hall monitor!" Lea calls over her shoulder as she strolls off towards the parking lot.  
  
Bradin shakes his head as he quickens his pace towards his classroom. When were those football tryouts again?

* * *

a/n: Present? Past? Is my grammar so horrid that it makes my story not understandable? Bradin and football hmm. Truth is, I can't remember if he plays basketball or football, I just remember that Ava wanted to send him to some sports camp... and I remember that it wasn't soccer. But hey, he can be on both the basketball and football team. 


	4. Bran Muffin

Disclaimer: I don't own this [waves hands wildly] any of it! Well maybe the plot but that was inspired by some other things so technically yeah, it's just for fun, to get the writing bug out of my system, don't sue me-- I don't have the time for it.

* * *

It's six weeks into school, and Bradin has settled into a nice routine consisting of school, football practice, and helping out at the surf shop and at home.  
  
During the first week of school, he and Sarah used to e-mail each other several times a day, but the habit died off quickly, and Bradin imagines he knows why. Though the girl claims to be a "hopeless romantic," Bradin had a hard time imagining her in a You've got mail scenario.  
  
But Bradin had adjusted nicely, making friends on the football team and in his classes. Life is a whirlpool, with different people getting caught up into your life— some stay and some don't; it was a lesson he grasped when he lost his parents.  
  
Bradin is now situated at a table with some guys on the football team.  
  
Conversations are buzzing around him about various events like parties and the upcoming homecoming game. Bradin is sorting out the items on his tray absentmindedly as he looks around the cafeteria. (Aunt Ava had given up on packing lunches because Nikki wanted a different thing everyday while Derrick wanted the same thing everyday and it was just easier to let them buy lunch.)  
  
"Dude, she's not here." A voice draws his attention back to the table, it's Adam, the one buried in sand.  
  
No, it isn't an alternate universe, Adam doesn't have an athletic bone in his body, as suspected. That's why he volunteered to be towel/water boy/manager of the football team so he can get into the free P.E. period without actually having to exercise. Oddly though, the guys on the team took to him kindly, Bradin has a suspicion Adam tutors them too come test time.  
  
"What?" Bradin pops open his bottle of Snapple.  
  
"You're looking for her," Adam smirks as if he is reading Bradin's mind.  
  
"Who?" Bradin takes a drink.  
  
Adam rolls his eyes and mutters, "Right, if you want to play that game."  
  
When Bradin doesn't further the conversation, Adam takes another stab, "Lea eats lunch outside sometimes to get away from— " He waves his hand about the cafeteria. "If only we could all be burdened by unwanted popularity."  
  
Bradin winces inwardly at Adam's characterization of Lea—by now he and Lea had become good friends, and he knows that if anything Lea isn't your typical teenage drama queen.  
  
It isn't just that kids wanted to be her friend because she is pretty and her older brother is the best basketball player to grace the school since its founding. The students and teachers here actually like her. Not that Bradin doesn't see their point—Lea is gorgeous but she doesn't know it, smart but she doesn't flaunt it, and witty but she isn't harsh.  
  
She doesn't walk on eggshells around Bradin because of his parents—which he appreciates. He's even been able to talk to her about how he feels about well, being orphaned, the move to California, and how he gets homesick once in a while.  
  
Lea never pushes him to talk. But when the subject does come up, she doesn't just utter irresponsible reassurances. She doesn't say stupid things like "you must feel horrible." or "I know how you feel." She just listens, and acknowledges and respects his emotions.  
  
When he's around Lea, Bradin feels at ease yet stimulated at the same time. He feels invigorated when she's around, and when she's not, he wants her to be.  
  
She's perfect. Bradin thought as he picked out the tomatoes in his turkey sandwich.  
  
As Bradin swallows his food, a girl he recognizes to be on the cheerleading squad approaches their table and a hush falls over as boys immaturely jab elbows with each other under the table—as if no one could see.  
  
"Hey Bradin," she flips her shoulder-length blonde hair over her shoulders with forced intention.  
  
"Hey," for the life of him he couldn't remember her name.  
  
"Hey Samantha." Now Bradin knows why it's convenient to have Adam around.  
  
"So," the Samantha girl bats her eyelashes at Bradin, "do you have a date to the homecoming dance?"  
  
"No," Bradin can see where the conversation is going and he isn't sure if he wants it to, so he pulls out a phrase from the "Jay and Erica" quote bag. "Uh, I don't know if I'm going to go with anyone, I think I'm gonna play it by ear."  
  
In truth, he isn't sure if he was going to go with anyone.  
  
In truth there is only one person he can imagine taking.  
  
_Lea._

* * *

You'd have to be deaf, blind, and mute to not notice the charm that is Lealana Noel.  
  
Especially when she's three inches next to you, smelling like a tropical cocktail, perched on a bar stool at your kitchen counter in a fitting tank top and running shorts, bangs falling haphazardly but sexily out of her ponytail about her face as she chews on the eraser of a mechanical pencil.  
  
Even her flaws are endearing in Bradin's eyes.  
  
She is impeccably neat about her homework to an obsessive-compulsive degree; she has a propensity to walk into inanimate tables and chairs. She has a hard time sitting still in class, but when she reads she's as quiet as a mouse. She gets excited about classic literature and will talk to anyone who would listen, or in Bradin's case, pretend to listen as he stares.  
  
Before her cross country races, she gets incredibly nervous and moody; and the girl hates to lose—although she rarely does, as Adam had told Bradin once that Lea actually holds the school record cross country and several track events.  
  
She is one of the shorter girls in their class, but Bradin finds her petite figure to his liking, he imagines that she'd fit just perfectly under his chin in his arms.  
  
They are seated around the kitchen counter and Lea is muttering to herself about derivatives of x, while Bradin tries desperately to suppress his own hormones. It always amazes him how she smells like coconuts and citrus—just the right blend of pleasant tartness. After Bradin brought her to the beach house the first time, Jay and Johnny immediately told him he needs to "go for it".  
  
Not that Bradin hadn't considered "going for it." But it was more difficult than imaginable, mainly because for all her intelligence, Lea is oblivious to the fact that Bradin can't take his eyes off of her whenever she's in the room.  
  
As Lea lets out an exasperated "Calculus-is-the-bane-of-my-existence" sigh, Ava strolls into the kitchen, pizza boxes in arm. "Hey Lea!" Johnny is following in her wake with two liter soda bottles in hand and a bag of ice, "Hey Lea!"  
  
"Hi Ava!" She hops off the stool to help lessen the load. She wrinkled her nose at Johnny, "Hey traitor!" They are in midst of an ongoing argument about the questionable trade of ex-Laker Shaquille O'neal from the summer. Lea, a born and raised California kid is a fervent Laker fan, while Johnny, being originally from the east coast favors the Sixers and is glad that Shaq returned to the east coast.  
  
"Can you stay for dinner?" Bradin tries not to sound too hopeful.  
  
Lea first looks at Ava, who assures her that, "You're always welcomed at the beach house!"  
  
"Thanks! But let me check in with my parents." She motions towards the phone. Johnny and Ava exchange approving looks, they really think this girl is good for Bradin—she's polite, she's bright, and she doesn't hate her parents!  
  
While they were talking, Jay was on the phone and when he hangs up to hand it over to Lea, he announces that "Erica's coming over!"  
  
In thirty minutes, the masses are eating pizza off of paper plates, with the adults at the kitchen table. Nikki, Derrick and Martha are parked in front of the television, so Bradin and Lea were shooed out to the terrace.  
  
As they are carrying their food and drinks out, Erica strolls up to the house, "Hey guys!"  
  
"Hey Erica!" Lea grins at her fellow local girl.  
  
"You better go inside and get your food quick, Johnny's hording the pepperoni." Bradin warns.  
  
"Gotcha." Erica pulls open the creaky screen door and steps into the kitchen where she's greeted by everyone inside.  
  
As she settles down into the tall bar stool at the counter next to Jay, Erica glances out the window at the teenagers. "So Bradin's been spending a lot of time with Lea."  
  
As if being the darling of Playa Linda High isn't enough, Lea is also adored by everyone at the beach house.  
  
Derrick and Nikki love her because she talks to them about books, and puts aside the new additions for them at the library. Johnny and Jay are guys and men are fundamentally shallow and judge 75% by appearances. Susannah thinks she has good enough complexion to be a face model ("it's a shame she's not taller"), and Ava thinks that she's a good influence on Bradin, because whenever she's at the beach house, she actually makes Bradin study.  
  
"She seems really wholesome," Ava asserts in a motherly manner.  
  
"Geez Ava, why don't we just give Bradin a bran muffin." Susannah retorts.  
  
"No, but Ava's right. Lea is a really good girl." Erica speaks up for her fellow local. "She's as normal as they come around here."  
  
"I just don't think it's a good idea for Bradin get into another relationship so soon." Ava purses her lips.  
  
"Ava! He's 16! He's hormonal! Anything else would be abnormal!" Johnny reassures her.  
  
Outside on the terrace, Lea is concentrating on picking off the olives and anchovies from her pizza, rogue bangs being blown by the soft evening winds.  
  
Bradin watches her interestedly as he contemplates how to bring up the subject of the homecoming dance, "So, Samantha came up to me at lunch today."  
  
"The cheerleader?"  
  
"Yeah,"  
  
"Oh," Although Lea's voice is even, she feels like her stomach just dropped to the pits, but brushes it off as a sign of hunger.  
  
"And she asked me about the homecoming dance." Bradin watches Lea's face for any change in expression.  
  
Lea looks over and all Bradin sees is the wicked twinkle in her eye, "My, my, will the world need to be prepared for more spawns of the blonde?" But she follows her comment by saying that "Samantha's a nice girl, she's got a cute nose."  
  
"Well, I told her I was going to just play it by ear." Though Bradin's eyes are trying to send Lea a different message.  
  
"Always the Casanova." Lea rolls her eyes.  
  
Bradin ignores the dig for now. "What about you?" 

"Hmm? We'll see." Lea vaguely replies.  
  
"You're going aren't you?"  
  
Lea looks pensive.  
  
"Well, you have to go, don't you?"  
  
Lea gives him a frown that says "I do?"  
  
"Well, you're probably going to be in the running for homecoming queen"  
  
The students at school had filled out ballots in homeroom, and Bradin knows for a fact that Lea's name was on every one of those slips since he had to collect them.  
  
Lea waves off his question breezily, "No way." Apparently she isn't into the grandeur of high school popularity censuses, which doesn't surprise Bradin.  
  
"Why?" He asks anyway.  
  
"J.B. is more into that sort of thing. He was Homecoming King last year. Can you imagine vying to be your brother's Queen?" Lea shudders at the thought. She prides herself on being open minded about almost everything but incest falls outside of that list by about 26 miles.  
  
Bradin chuckles lightly.  
  
"I'll probably end up going though, you know, to cheer for J.B." Lea adds with a roll of the hazel-green eyes.  
  
"Well, who's gonna be your date?"  
  
Lea shrugs nonchalantly, "It's not a big deal. I usually get no offers and end up going with Adam or with a group."  
  
Bradin finds it hard to believe that Lea would have trouble getting an escort—but on the flip side, as a guy he understands how intimidating a girl like Lea can be, as he's trying to deal with that problem himself as we speak. He also has an inkling that the words "touch my sister and Die! – J.N." graffiti on the walls of the boys locker room might have something to do with it.  
  
"What about you?" Lea drops her pizza on her pate, apparently done with her dinner. "So no Samantha. What about her friend Gabrielle? You know who I'm talking about? She cheers too, the one with curly brown hair?"  
  
Bradin shakes his head. "What makes you think I'm into dating cheerleaders?"  
  
Lea shrugs, "if the shoe fits."  
  
"Are you saying I'm shallow?" Bradin pretends to be hurt. "You have a mirror in your locker." "So do you!" "I'm a girl!" "Double standard!" Bradin calls her on her weak excuse. But Lea isn't one to give up an argument easily. "Are you saying that appearances don't factor into your female rating system?"  
  
There is a pause before Bradin answers.  
  
"Yes!"  
  
Lea snorts, "Well, my apologies then."  
  
"Not forgiven."  
  
"Aren't you just the quintessence of maturity."  
  
"Using big words to confuse me will get you no where."  
  
"Please oh please, Bradin Westerly, please, what can I do to regain your confidence." Lea puts on an exaggerated earnest look; sarcasm dripped from her monotonous plead.  
  
"Go to the homecoming dance with me."

* * *

A/N: Not much to say-- hope you're enjoying this. I'm considering changing the title of this story. But I think it's a technicality I can write myself out of. read and enjoy, review if it's to your fancy please


	5. Platonic

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just like to make up stories about them.

* * *

Lea froze when she heard Bradin speak the words.  
  
This is one of the few times in her life when she found herself speechless. She quickly forces herself to process the information to find the correct analysis.  
  
Bradin watches Lea for a second and then turns to face his pizza. _Good going Westerly, you freaked her out._ He scolds himself silently. He must have been insane to think that Lea will agree—why did he ever think that he'd be good enough for her.  
  
And then the sound of her voice brings him back to reality, "Sure, Bradin."  
  
Bradin's head snaps up, and he looks at Lea incredulously. Did she just say yes? He's sure he heard wrong.  
  
"You need an excuse to get out of unsolicited date offers, right?" Lea nods.  
  
"Wha—? No, I mean..." Bradin rushes to explain himself.  
  
Lea holds up a hand, "No, don't worry about it. It must be hard to fight off the masses." She grins at him impishly.  
  
Bradin's heart had soared when he first heard her agree to his offer, but it instantly plunged when he realized that she didn't understand his implications. Doesn't she know what she does to him?  
  
"Look Lea..." Bradin starts to explain himself. But one look at her sparkling eyes left his thoughts jumbled like a ball of rubber bands.  
  
"It's fine Bradin. Lots of people go as friends." Lea picks up her paper plate and cup of finished drink. "Who knows, I might even make you have fun."  
  
Bradin doesn't doubt that he'll have a good time with Lea. But he wants to tell her that he isn't just asking her as an excuse, but he's also scared to tell her that he likes her. It took him a while to gain her trust. Although Lea is a friend to everyone, she didn't consider everyone a friend.  
  
Bradin found out quickly that her 'inner circle', so to speak, is in fact very small; he isn't even sure if he has established himself in it yet. To jeopardize their friendship is something he doesn't want to do. He's fallen too hard.

* * *

Lea lays on her back on a comfortable queen size bed in her baby blue and yellow decorated room. The Noels live in a comfortable to say the least, massive in actuality, mansion in the so-called hills; where the proverbial rich kids reside.  
  
She's contemplating the events of tonight—now she's going to homecoming dance with Bradin Westerly. The thought scares her. Despite her mental protests, she's beginning to see why Callie harbored 'a thing' for him the entire summer.  
  
Bradin is attractive, to put it in the mildest description—okay, so he's a major hottie. The crooked smile, the clear azure eyes, and that mop of blonde hair is enough to categorize him as a regular teen heart throb.  
  
But Lea has never been impressed by just good looks alone. She has lived with Playa Linda's resident Adonis for her entire life, and it's given her a good dose of immunity towards it.  
  
The truth is that Bradin isn't like the brawny, albeit occasionally hot guys that pass in and out of her kitchen trailing after J.B, showering her with the occasional "looking sweet, Lea!"  
  
Those are the same guys who don't care for her use of big words and absurd love for books. Usually it made their eyes glass over, or they'd look at her like she had two heads on her shoulders.  
  
Lea has always hated the idea of just being the banal girl from the beach town. True, she shops at Abercrombie and Fitch. Yes, she tries to tan even in the winter, and has a collection of flip-flop sandals to supply for a small Amazon tribe, but that doesn't mean that she can't have a brain.  
  
And Bradin seems to respect that. He listens to her when she talks. Although she's not always sure that he understands or cares, he's always interested. He asks questions rather than just agreeing with her.  
  
On top of that he makes her laugh—whenever he uses phrases or expressions that he used to use in Kansas, or when he tries to hide her coffee tumbler because he insists that caffeine will be the death of her.  
  
It's just that she didn't think she'd take to him so quickly... and she hates the idea that she's become this conventional dewey-eyed teenager who's fascinated by the new boy in town. Even though somewhere deep down she knows that she is very much that exact description—but she'll deny it for as long as she can.  
  
Just then, a tapping from her opened doors caused Lea to look up from her queen sized bed.  
  
"Hey L," it is J.B., Lea's older brother.  
  
"Yea?" Lea says in a slightly testy tone.  
  
"Ugh, are you PMS-ing?" J.B. rolls his eyes.  
  
Ignoring her brother's crude comment, Lea rolls over on her stomach. "Did you just get home?"  
  
"I pulled in a little after you did." J.B. plops himself down on the sofa in his sister's room. "Where'd you come from?"  
  
"Bradin's," Lea answers. Did she mention that she loves his name? It is unusual, unique, and she enjoys the sound of it.  
  
J.B.'s brows furrow slightly. "You're there a lot lately." He states.  
  
Lea shrugs, she can sense J.B. is about to get protective of her. Annoying, somewhat, but she appreciates the fact that J.B. looks out for her. "It's... lively..." Lea tries to describe the beach house. "Erica's there sometimes." She grins mischievously at her brother. Erica Spalding is basically the object of every teenage male's hormonal fantasies in Playa Linda. "I think she's with Jay Robertson."  
  
J.B. raises his eyebrow in surprise, "the surfer?"  
  
"I don't think he competes anymore, but he runs the surf shop, you know, next to uh... smoothie planet on the boardwalk?"  
  
"Ohh..." J.B. answers in recognition. Before his sister can deftly change the subject, and J.B. knows that she's good at that, he gets to his point. "So like, I heard some things about Westerly in the locker room."  
  
Lea rolls her eyes, "the origin of all accurate knowledge on earth."  
  
"Lealana," J.B. refers to her by full name to let her know he's serious.  
  
"Okay, okay! Impose your sagacious wisdom big brother."  
  
"He went out with Sarah Borden."  
  
"I know."  
  
"Well..."  
  
"J.B., you've said yourself that Sarah is a pretty girl." The Noels and the Bordens are family acquaintances.  
  
"Yeah, but I wouldn't date her." J.B. prefers girls that are uh, well, sane. "And never in a million years would I _sleep_ with her." _Nice one big brother, really eloquent._ J.B. inwardly rolls his eyes at himself.  
  
Lea is silent for a second. She doesn't know why she is shook up about it. She knew that lots of her peers were having sex and she has never been one to judge. People make their own choices and it's not her place to be a critic. But somehow, the idea that Bradin has been that intimate with Sarah made the acid in her stomach reflux like there is no tomorrow.  
  
But she tries to hide her uncertainty, "J.B.!" She puts on her best flippant tone, "that was like, way too much information. Bradin's just my friend. You know, like Larry or Ryan," she mentions platonic guy friends that are mutual friends of her and her brother.  
  
J.B. groans silently. If only Lea knew how he's got a death threat on the entire male population of Playa Linda High to stay away from his sister.  
  
J.B. knows from, well personal experience, that the male species is ultimately inappropriate in their hormonal fantasies, and he will personally emasculate anyone who dares to disrespect his little sister. Hypocrisy, yes. Does he care? No. As long as it gets the point across.  
  
"But the fact that he slept with Borden..." J.B. starts to plead his case.  
  
"Proves that he's a normal, healthy, teenage boy? J.B. you're no angel yourself." Lea inwardly frowns at herself for defending Bradin's stance for sleeping with Sarah.  
  
"Yea but I didn't sleep with Playa Linda's answer to Paris Hilton."  
  
"J.B.! That's wrong! Sarah used to be our friend!"  
  
"In elementary school!"  
  
J.B. takes a breath to reorganize his arguments. "Look Lea, he's not from around here."  
  
"Well, the globe consists of many places outside of Playa Linda. In fact, I doubt we'd even register as a pin prick from the view of a space probe." Lea looks at her brother disapprovingly. She knows her brother is better than the typical Playa Linda snobbiness.  
  
"I don't trust him."  
  
"Why because he may just get as much attention from the girls as you do?" Lea snickers.  
  
J.B. rolls his eyes, "No. I don't trust him because he puts on this... All- American boy act. And I'll have you know he's got nothing on me." Please, he is J.B. Noel. In Playa Linda, and the surrounding suburbs, the sound of his name makes girls weak.  
  
"Is there a point to this?" Lea isn't in the mood to listen to his brother's vanity tonight.  
  
"Yea..." J.B. recollects himself, point, point... "look, I don't like the idea of you getting too close to this... really hormonal boy..." J.B. says lamely.  
  
Lea snorts slightly, "So what, is there some J.B.-approved standard now?"  
  
"Yes," he answers, once again, very lamely.  
  
"Ugh... okay whatever." Lea can see that this conversation isn't going to go very far. Stubbornness is a fatal trait in their family. "We're just friends anyways.  
  
"Totally platonic." J.B. needs confirmation.  
  
"Yes, just platonic friends. There-is-always-a-one-foot-space-between-us platonic friends." Lea assures him while she had an internal debate. "Uh, but I'm going to homecoming with him." She says the words quickly and under her breath, hoping that her brother won't hear her, correctly at least.  
  
J.B.'s eyes widens, "No, you're not?" Wasn't the girl listening to anything he had just said?  
  
Lea's suppresses the urge to roll her eyes, "J.B.! It's not a thing. We're just going as friends. He's getting approached by girls and this way it's easier for him to say no."  
  
"Oh yea, that's an original one." J.B. can't believe the innocence of his little sister sometimes—although it is partly his own fault because he's kept her so protected, but you can't blame him, she is his little sister.  
  
"It'll be boring if I go alone. You get to be homecoming king and all that stuff. So sue me if I want a friend around when everyone starts fawning over you." _Good job Lea, turn the tables,_ she cheered herself on silently.  
  
"I thought you usually go with like, Adam or someone." Personally, J.B. has a suspicion that Adam well, swung the other way, and that his thing for Callie was a front; so he felt safe when Lea was escorted by Adam to events.  
  
"Well, yeah. But Adam mentioned that he might finally work up enough guts to ask Callie this year. I don't particularly fancy going alone." Despite her intelligence and opinions, Lea is still an old-fashioned girl in some ways.  
  
"You can't go with him."  
  
"I'm sorry, do I have some physical disability that I didn't know about that will prevent me from doing so?"  
  
"Lea!"  
  
"J.B.!"  
  
They glare at each other.  
  
Lea sighs softly, "look, I know you're just trying to... fulfill your brotherly duties or whatever. I understand that you don't trust him because he hasn't been around us our whole lives. But Mom and Dad don't even tell me who I can or cannot see. It'll be fine. We're just friends."  
  
"Okay, listen Lea. You don't understand the way a guy's mind thinks." J.B. began.  
  
"Thank God for that, I might need brainwashing to return to my good senses." Lea wrinkles her nose.  
  
J.B. gives her a look of warning. "Guys don't uh, always think with... their heads..."  
  
Lea can already feel another too-much-information conversation already. "Okay, stop J. I don't wanna hear it." She takes a minute to muffle her face in her pillow before looking up again to address her brother.  
  
"I assure you it's platonic. I don't like him that way, and I'll bring pepper spray." Ugh, the whole rhyming thing must be what makes her argument sound unconvincing in her head.  
  
J.B. is silenced for a moment by his little sister's adamant statements.  
  
Seeing that she's got him by the shirt tail, Lea moves in for the subject change. "Anyways, who are you going with? You know Jen from my grade... the cute volleyball player...?"

* * *

A/n: uhh.. yes this is still a Summerland fic. I'm sorry the scoobies are not in my stories as much as they should be. I will try harder to incorporate the beach house crew (if anyone has a better name for them, let me know! suggestions WANTED) But I wanted to write this story because I wanted to write about Lea and Bradin... so... yes. (what was my point?) Oh yea! read and enjoy! Review if you want to make my day! 


	6. Brotherly Love

Disclaimer: I don't own Bradin. I thought I owned Lea but the girl's got a mind of her own. I don't own Summerland, bet I'd be rich if I did though. But since I'm not, don't sue me, it wouldn't be worth your time and trouble.

* * *

The sun is radiating warmly—it's a typical California afternoon.  
  
Lea and some friends from the cross country team are sitting atop their various SUVs, basking in the afternoon rays as they enjoyed their free hour before practice.  
  
Their conversation varies from upcoming meets to, of course, school gossip which around this time usually revolves around Homecoming.  
  
"Lea! You cannot withdraw from the homecoming race!" As Bradin predicted, Lea was nominated for homecoming queen, and like Lea promised, she withdrew by the next period.  
  
"I already did." Lea rolls her eyes-- doesn't anyone understand that the thought of being crowned with your own brother is beyond nauseating?  
  
"But you're going right?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm going." Lea tries really hard to suppress the corners of her mouth from turning up.  
  
"Ooh!" The girls can sense a good piece of gossip about their favorite, well, only captain.  
  
"Who's gonna be your date?" One of the girls immediately cuts to the chase.  
  
Just as Lea opens her mouth to answer, Callie rushes out from the courtyard.  
  
"Oh my gosh, Lea!" Her voice is filled with urgency. "Come quick, the courtyard!"  
  
Lea isn't sure what had happened, but a gut feeling tells her not to be so dumb-- it had to be J.B. Her brother was never one for subtleties.  
  
Lea jumps off of her SUV, stumbling a couple steps before she gained complete balance, and jogs after Callie towards the courtyard.  
  
Sure enough, there they were, J.B. and Bradin, along with a couple of bystanders.  
  
J.B.'s had Bradin pushed up against a locker, and Lea notices how his books have been flung violently to the ground.  
  
"God. Cavemen could settle their differences in a more civil manner." Lea mumbles to herself.  
  
"Stay away from my sister!" J.B.'s voice reverberated in the air.  
  
"Look man, calm down. She's a good friend." Bradin is going to try to be the reasonable one here-- he can sympathize with J.B.'s concern, he's got a sister too. But really, he'd like to get a break once in a while, he really likes Lea. Plus the way the locker lock was digging into his shoulder blade is really uncomfortable to say the least.  
  
"I don't know what kind of girls you're used to from Kansas, but Lea's not like that." J.B. spits the words at Bradin.  
  
No, she's not. She's more beautiful than anyone I've ever seen, Bradin thinks. But he doubts that J.B. wants to hear about that right now.  
  
J.B. glares dangerously at Bradin, and Lea can tell that he is an inch away from violent mode.  
  
She briskly walks up to her brother, and tries to pull her brother away. "Okay J.B., did I miss the scene when you devolved into a Neanderthal? Because logical thought is a trait of homo sapiens, and you're really not showing it."  
  
"Lea!" J.B. tries to push Lea back—well just to get her as far from Bradin as possible.  
  
"Oh good, you can still remember my name!" She rolls her eyes and steps in between the two to pry her brother off of her friend. "Look, don't do this. I told you, it's just a friend thing."  
  
"I don't like..." Before J.B. can articulate the fact that he'd prefer to have his little sister in a convent wearing a mock that revealed no parts skin, she cuts him off.  
  
"Okay there are lots of things that I don't like J.B. Adolescence bites that way. But Bradin is my friend. We don't plan to run off and get tattooed. We plan on going to a dance where you're likely to be crowned homecoming king." Go for the flattery Noel, remind him he's a good guy, she coaches herself mentally.  
  
But since J.B. is still standing menacingly in front of them, Lea continues, in a more forceful tone. "If you plan on beating ever guy that escorts me anywhere who you don't deem gay, you're gonna have some bloody knuckles because I don't plan on becoming a nun anytime in the foreseeable future." Yeah, she knows how her brother thinks... She finishes by shoving the car keys in his hand. "Just stop, let it go."  
  
J.B. backs off but he is still looking unsatisfied.  
  
Lea knows that it is time for the last straw, "I will tell Mom!"  
  
And the mention of parental units shuttles J.B. back into the world of rationality. His parents, though they are the ones who taught him to protect his sibling, won't look kindly on a suspension. Defeated, he stalks off towards the parking lot.  
  
The bystanders assume that the show is over, and they begin to dissipate into their classrooms.  
  
Left alone in the courtyard with Bradin, Lea breathes a sigh of relief. She turns to Bradin and smiles apologetically. "My bad, I should have warned you about J.B."  
  
Bradin pushes himself off of the lockers. "No harm, no foul." He rubs the spot in his shoulder blades, well that's going to bruise.  
  
They sat down near one of the cement planters in the middle of the courtyard. Lea contemplates how to explain J.B.'s protectiveness of her.  
  
"It's just, god, I don't want you to think like that Playa Linda Hills kids are all like, little rich crazy people." She rolls her eyes at the vain description of herself. What she really wants to say that she doesn't want him to think that they're all like Sarah.  
  
Bradin watches her think, something he's grown to love to do, her hazel- green eyes stare into the air as if she were reading an invisible book, and she sucks in her right cheek just slightly.  
  
Lea takes a deep breath before she starts again. "Okay, I don't know if you can tell, because you probably haven't met people like us in Kansas," she couldn't stop herself from shooting him a teasing grin, "but J.B. and I are mixed."  
  
"Mixed," it takes Bradin a second to understand her. "Oh, you mean your parents?"  
  
"Yeah," Lea was relieved that Bradin understands her inane babbling. "Our mom is Hawaiian, and our dad is French." she rolls her eyes, "so now you can imagine where our names come from."  
  
There was a look of perception on Bradin's face. It certainly explains Lea's exotic features.  
  
"My full name is Lealana, which my mom picked and J.B. stands for," Lea pauses to chuckle, "Jean-Bastien... none of the kids at kindergarten could pronounce it so it became J.B." She remembers how J.B. used to grump about being called 'Jeanne' and how that's a girl's name.  
  
"But I digress." She frowns at her own inability to address the matter at hand. "So the point is that when we're younger, I used to get teased a lot about like, my eyes or something vapid like that." Lea breaks again to recollect, "Not that it's a big deal anymore, I mean, I'm proud who I am and who my parents are, they're great people. And we definitely take the best family vacations. But when you're six, you don't know how to take things with a grain of salt. J.B. didn't have it so bad because he looks just like dad but I got a good mix of both... and I used to come home crying because you know, people pulled my hair, and like, tried to poke my eye to see if it's like, the same as theirs and what not."  
  
"Kids tried to poke your eye?" Bradin's own eyes widened in horror. He wants so badly just to pull her into his arms and tell her how exquisite her unique features are, and how stunning she is. But probably not in those eloquent words.  
  
"Well like they'd try to put their fingers really close to see if like my eyes can radiate heat or... I don't know, I was little!" Lea pouts a little.  
  
Bradin laughs as he memorizes the adorable way that her lower lip curls just slightly.  
  
"Anyway! So J.B. is just really protective, because he's used to fighting off bullies for me. And I don't want you to think he's this like... hostile, unreasonable, angry jerk who's on testosterone overdrive."  
  
Bradin examines Lea's pleading eyes, and notices that they turn greener when she's emotional. "You really like your brother, huh?"  
  
"Well I've only got one," Lea rolls her eyes but smiles at the same time. She isn't about to admit to Bradin that she has this brother complex where she tends to compare all guys to a 'J.B. standard'.  
  
"That's really cool. Nikki and I used to be talk a lot before..." Bradin doesn't want to say the words 'my parents died'.  
  
Lea just nods. "Nikki's great, she's got good taste in books."  
  
Bradin is grateful that Lea lets the unsaid things pass unsaid. "Let's just hope she's got good taste in guys too." He rolls his eyes.  
  
"Well, she's got good examples." Lea says softly. Pity the boys who cross Nikki's path and have to live up to a 'Bradin' standard.  
  
Bradin and Lea both look at each other, their eyes both revealing more emotions then they would like, although neither wanted to jump to the delicious assumption. Lea realizes the possible implications in what she's just said and quickly looks away.  
  
"Ugh, I've gotta run." She pauses then grimly wrinkles her nose, "Literally. The girls are probably waiting for me. I'm really sorry about J.B. I'll try to get it through to him that we're just friends."  
  
Bradin hopes that the disappointment he felt isn't showing on his face.  
  
Lea isn't sure what that expression was, so she quickly follows, "Or maybe you want to ask another girl? I promise not all Playa Linda girls are crazy or have crazy brothers." She tries on airs of flippancy.  
  
"No!" Bradin answers, a little too quickly probably. "I mean, I'll take my chances." Really smooth Westerly, he inwardly slaps himself.  
  
Lea can't help feeling relieved, "Well, it's your funeral." She flashes him a grin.  
  
A silence passes between them as neither of them want to make the first move to leave, but then the bell rings, signifying the end of school and the beginning of after school activities. "Shoot, I gotta get on the field . So, do you want to do homework together later?"  
  
Of course Lea wants to, but she doubts that she can concentrate around Bradin today. "Um, I probably shouldn't, J.B. might storm the beach house or something..." She smiles apologetically.  
  
Bradin nods in accordance. "Well, I'll talk to you later then."  
  
"Okay, bye. Have a nice practice."  
  
"Don't run into any oncoming traffic."  
  
"Oh you are a witty one Westerly."  
  
"You know it."  
  
"See ya, Bradin."  
  
"Bye Lea."  
  
The two part ways, both hearts a little heavier, a little fuller, a little closer to each other.

* * *

A/N: Lea talks too much. I'm the author and I even think so! Callie and the scoobies will be in the next chapter... how actively will depend on how creative I can get. Or how much caffeine I consume... the two are proportionally correlated.

I realize that I probably have some real time continuation problems in this fic. So just uh. imagine in your mind how it might possibly work and yea that's how it's supposed to be... (laugh)


	7. Ostrich!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not summerland, not bradin, not the beach house crew, not America's funniest videos. Read on!

* * *

Callie and Lea are at the shopping mall, filtering through various stores, looking for appropriate dresses for Homecoming.  
  
"Okay how about this one?" Callie holds up a long pastel pink dress with a flowing skirt made of mesh-like material.  
  
Lea wrinkles her nose, "So I can look like I dyed my dress with pepto bismo?"  
  
"Pink is in!" Callie widens her eyes.  
  
"'In' is overrated," Lea mutters. Usually picking a dress for these school events didn't bother her so much. She'd enter, she'd decide, she'd pay, she'd leave.  
  
Callie watches with interest as Lea flips through the clothes rack, irritated. The princess has fallen and she doesn't even know it! Callie is used to be the one getting moody about boys, and it's nice to change places for once.  
  
"Why are we going to this dance again?" Lea scowls  
  
"Because," Callie answers, "It's homecoming, we're teenagers, it's a rite of passage!"  
  
"It's absurd. There is a plethora of better things that I could be doing with my time than perusing tailored pieces of fabric." Using big words makes her feel better, less like the insignificant adolescent who she fears that she is.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Like... like reading!"  
  
"Gag me." Callie rolls her eyes.  
  
"If you want,"  
  
"Lea! Don't go drama queen on me. We all know that Bradin will think you look beautiful even if you do dye your dress with pepto bismo."  
  
"Who said I cared what he thinks?"  
  
"Denial is not a river in Egypt my dear"  
  
Lea snorts lightly, "Touché! And for your information, the Nile is a river in Egypt, it also runs through Uganda and Sudan... well the Blue Nile at least... the White Nile on the other hand..." Lea starts to babble, trying to distract Callie's attention  
  
"Yeah, tell me again when I go on my African safari, but right now we're talking about Bradin."  
  
"I thought we were talking about geography..." Lea says weakly.  
  
"So what's the deal?" Callie asks  
  
"There is no deal. We're friends." Lea insists  
  
"Right,"  
  
"Right."  
  
"That's why he stares at you whenever you walk in the room."  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
"Well, what can I say, love is blind. He also waits for you in the morning."  
  
"He doesn't wait for me, our lockers are just next to each other."  
  
"Even the fates are looking kindly upon you."  
  
"Pin in haystack. Callie, you're grasping at straws. I'm not his type."  
  
"Oh, so you know his type?"  
  
"He dated Sarah, that's his type."  
  
"Attention-craving-pathological-liar is not a type." Callie can't help her eyes from rolling.  
  
"Callie that's mean. And it could be a type."  
  
"Okay whatever, it's beside the point."  
  
"You had a point?"  
  
"The point is that Bradin likes you."  
  
"Whatever." Lea turns away.  
  
"Okay fine don't believe me. Do you like him though?" Callie turns to face Lea  
  
"He doesn't like me!" Lea refuses to meet her gaze.  
  
"That's not what I asked. How do you feel about him?"  
  
"He's nice, he's funny, he's a friend!" Lea exclaims.  
  
"Oh my god! The level of your abjuration is seriously astonishing."  
  
"Abjuration, that's a good one Callie." Lea smirks, so she has been studying those vocabulary cards.  
  
"Thanks, did I use it right?"  
  
"I think so."  
  
Callie sighs, "Lea, I don't know what you're so scared of."  
  
"I'm not scared of anything."  
  
"Yes you are."  
  
"No I'm not."  
  
"are"  
  
"not"  
  
"are"  
  
"not!"  
  
"Ostrich!"  
  
"Where?"  
  
"Don't play dumb, brainiac, I'm going to the dressing room." Callie carries her armful of clothes to the dressing room.  
  
"Yeah, go! Dress!" Lea calls after her friend, trying to get the last word so she can count her victory.  
  
Lea never really cared too much about dances. Well, that wouldn't be completely true. She is a girl, and no matter what anyone says, even the biggest tomboy likes to get dressed up once in a, long while.  
  
This dance shouldn't be any different from the others. It's just Homecoming. J.B. will probably get all the attention, some people will arrive drunk, there'll be an after party at the beach that'll probably end in police intervention, her friends will be there... She's been to many of these events and not once has she been so... aware of the occasion.  
  
Why should this time be any different? Just because Bradin Westerly will be there?  
  
And there lies her problem.  
  
Much to her dismay, and when J.B. finds out there might not be a Bradin but just several pieces of Bradin left, but that Westerly boy has stolen his way into her heart.  
  
She likes the way his eyes twinkle whenever he teases her. She likes the fact that he'll make her explain her opinions on the main themes of Dickens' Hard Times in teenage slang so he can debate back at her quicker. She likes the way he jogs towards her when he sees her, but kind of drags his feet because his belt is too loose. She likes how his hair always looks so soft, and how he falls asleep in first period with the pen in his hand.  
  
_She likes him.  
_  
Lea thinks about this as she continues to sift through various dresses, pastel pink, hot pink, yellow, fuschia blue, bubble gum pink... What is with all this PINK! Lea has never really understood the color.  
  
_Ok, being this concerned about appearances is not healthy_. She reprimands herself. _Lea Noel, you are a vapid, superficial, shallow, transparent--_  
  
Lea's self-deprecating tirade came to an abrupt halt as she spotted it. Lea's got a vision.  
  
She quickly snatched the dress off the clearance sales rack and headed towards the dressing room.  
  
Who knows, maybe it'll be okay after all.

* * *

Homecoming. Is. Tonight.  
  
Actually, technically, it was yesterday. The game was played Friday. The dance is on Saturday night. The Playa Linda Barracudas had won—it wasn't a particularly exciting seat-gripping game—they blew out their opponent. The big win definitely put the student body in good spirits, because any celebration of a defeat usually begins with heavy inebriation and ends in drunken stupor.  
  
Bradin is amongst that population. He's been fidgety all day; basically watching the hands on the clock move. She'd been refusing to answer his calls and told him that if he kept messaging her she's going to pass him over to Samantha—and he definitely doesn't want to be at that dance with anyone else but her so he complied, which left him antsy, in a giddy kind of way, but antsy none the less. And this has been the case for the past 7 hours.

* * *

The beach house crew, Erica included since she's living with Jay now, gathers in the living room.  
  
"If he doesn't stop pacing I'm going to go in there and tie him down to a chair!" The shuffling of feet on wood panels is driving Susannah insane.  
  
"Aw, give him a break Susannah, the boy is in lurrrrve." Jay drawls  
  
"Love?" Derrick always seems to perk up when he hears that word.  
  
Before anyone can answer his question, Bradin rushes into the room holding two long pieces of fabric. He is still in board shorts but has on a dress shirt. He has a bewildered look in his eye, "Aunt Ava, which one do you think is better?"  
  
Nikki stifles her giggles as Ava gives her a Look, and answers Bradin. "Um, honey, I think the uh, blue one, will uh bring out your eyes nicely."  
  
Bradin looks at the two ties in his hand, gives a Yes-I-Thought-So-Too nods. "Okay, thanks Aunt Ava." He disappears back into his room again.  
  
When Bradin's out of ear shot, Nikki bursts out in a guffaw. "I must be colorblind because they both looked blue to me!"  
  
Erica nods in accordance, her face in a wide grin .  
  
Johnny looks down at Derrick who's sitting next to him on the couch, "That, my young padowan, is love."  
  
"Lurrrve," Jay drawls again, reaching to put his arms around Erica.  
  
Nikki suddenly thinks of a good idea and giggles again. "Can we film him and then send the video into _America's Funniest Videos_?"  
  
Ava frowns and is about to tell Nikki she shouldn't poke fun at her brother's anxiety but Johnny spoke up before she could.  
  
"That show is still on?"  
  
Jay looks at her with the same question in his eye.  
  
"It is." Nikki answers confidently, but is suddenly unsure, "isn't it?"  
  
"I don't think so," Erica asserts. "The Olsen twins may have stayed around but Bob Sagat definitely did not."  
  
"But I think there's one just like it. But it might be on cable TV. But I think they still have prize money for the best videos!" Nikki argues.  
  
"Really?" Jay is obviously interested, he and Johnny trade glances.  
  
Susannah speaks up. "How much prize money?"  
  
Ava casts a look of warning at her housemates before getting out of her seat. "No videos!" After that photograph leak, she isn't about to leave anything on record ever again. "I'm gonna go help him before he gives himself an early heart attack."

* * *

Lea is in her room, putting on the finishing touches. The dress she bought from the store was black, strapless, made of satin, with a long flowing skirt. The design itself is last year, and a little too formal for the Homecoming dance. Homecoming at Playa Linda High is more of a dress-up party event rather than a formal dance event. But the dress was perfect for what she had in mind.  
  
After Lea bought the dress, she enlisted her mother's help for some alterations.  
  
The long skirt was reduced to just at knee length. Under advice from her mom, they added the slightest taffeta touch to it, because "Lea, your hips simply have not filled out yet," which made Lea scowl slightly.  
  
A pastel yellow satin sash was sewn on, at the high waist line, and Lea's mom created a criss-cross design at the top hem of the dress with yellow ribbons. Later, Lea found a plumeria design that she liked and reproduced it by copying the contour with pale yellow and light orange rhinestones at the bottom right side of her dress. It wasn't very flashy or showy, but elegant with a hint of fun.  
  
The crown of her hair is arranged in two French braids, Lea had woven yellow ribbons into the embedded plaits so that it looked as though she was wearing a halo, securing it in the center with the ribbon. She curled the ends of her locks and let it fall down her back in romantic waves. As a finishing touch, Lea tucked a yellow plumeria she picked from the garden behind her ear, and began her make up.  
  
Lea has never been one for a lot of make up—it always made her feel like she's wearing a mask, so she's opting for the natural look. She applies a shimmery bronzer to make her residual summer tan glow. A peach hue blush, brown eyeliner coupled with a peach eyeshadow with golden undertones to bring out the warmth in her eyes and a light coat of mascara. On her lips, she put on a lipgloss—nothing too sparkly or glittery—the greatest beauty comes in subtlety.  
  
For all of her stressing, she's in a surprisingly good mood.  
  
Lea had put a lot of thought about what Callie told her on the store. She caught on to the 'ostrich' comment—Callie was telling her to pull her head out of the sand. So she did. Fine, big deal, she's got a crush on Bradin Westerly.  
  
Crushes are normal; Lea blames the hormones. Crushes aren't usually requited, which is half the fun, and Lea has accepted that as well. So you see, it's not as if she wants to be with him.  
  
It's entirely coincidental that she has a crush on her friend, it happens to the best of them—it happened to Joey on Dawson's Creek.  
  
It's not a _thing._  
  
At least that's what she told herself, and that's how she managed to rationalize her emotions.  
  
As she examines herself in her bathroom mirror, she can hear footsteps approaching her door.  
  
"Lealoha," her mother calls her by her baby name, meaning "beloved child" in her native Hawaiian.  
  
"Yeah, Mom?" She answers to let her know that she's in the bathroom.  
  
"Do you need any help?" She watches as Lea ties on a yellow ribbon choker with a cross charm—a present from her father a couple years ago.  
  
"No, I'm about done."  
  
"Your brother is ready to leave." Lea's mom informs her, hinting that she would like her to go say good bye to her brother. She knows that Lea and J.B. have been fighting, and she'd just feel so much better if her children are at least cordial to each other before they left the house.  
  
"Yeah, okay." Lea finds it hard to say no to her mother. Plus J.B. did keep his word and leave Bradin alone.  
  
Lea snaps her gold hoops earrings with plumerias dangling in the middle into place, and she moves briskly towards the living room where her father was adjusting J.B.'s tie. Her brother is wearing a dark green silk dress shirt under a light grey sweater vest, paired with black slacks. Both men turn as they hear Lea coming, and J.B. tucks his silver tie under his vest.  
  
"Hey J," Lea starts to speak.  
  
J.B. just gives his sister a grim look. _Shouldn't she have a jacket to go with that outfit?_ "Lea, just be careful, look out for yourself, and if anything at all happens, tell me immediately."  
  
"Sir, yes sir." Lea rolls her eyes at her brother. It's a dance, not guerilla combat for god's sake.  
  
Lea's dad looks satisfied at his children as Lea's mother joins them in the living room—both parents beaming.  
  
J.B. picks up the keys to the Noels' newest addition to their garage—a black Mercedes SLK 320, "alright, I gotta go."  
  
"See ya later J!" Lea calls after him, and watches her parents follow him to the garage through the kitchen.  
  
She glances at the clock made out of stained glass on the wall. Bradin should be here any minute now. She runs upstairs and checks herself in the mirror again, reapplying her lip gloss just out of nervousness. Rustling in her bag and going through a mental checklist—_money, cell phone, credit card, lip gloss, kleenex, safety pin—_  
  
That's when the doorbell rang.

* * *

A/N: Does anything know anything about how to make the lines more spaced out on these things? I mean... too many words on the screen makes my eye water. If you feel the same, let me know as you kindly read/review. If you think i'm just desperate for something to write in an author's note, well you are correct as well. 

**dolphinchick2568** - Thank you for reviewing, one order of undying gratitude coming right up. and uh now that i logically thinking about it, it should have been obvious. Thank you for letting me know. so how are we going to make my little blooper plausible? well, hey, so bradin isn't the star of the football team, no big right? can't win 'em all... (or is here when you berate me because how can he not be the best at everything he does? [wince] i guess we can pretend that he has a REALLY REALLY good arm? or is a really really good receiver? i dunno take your pick and that's the right one. it's not a big deal in the story) But i'll make sure to put him on the basketball team as well...

**beautyqueen321** - It's always nice to meet another lover of words! I mean, they didn't create a thesaurus for nothing right? I just wanted to create a young person who isn't simply concerned with keeping up with the latest MTV vocabulary-- not that there's anything wrong with that, because I'd be guilty of the same crime. But I've always believed that you don't have to be stupid to be "cool" and just because you're eloquent doesn't make you some uber-geek. Anyways, Thank you for reviewing, your compliments made me blush. I'm glad you enjoy the story, and hopefully I can live up to the expectations.


	8. Meet Anastasie

Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland, Bradin, the crazy beach house, or anything that they show on TV. The TV owns them. (smile)

* * *

Bradin stands in front of the door of Lea's house, nervous, excited. He lifts his hand to ring the doorbell, but retracts it. He clears his throat, as if it'd help him work up some guts.  
  
He didn't have too much trouble finding his way, and he had made sure he was on time.  
  
Lea lives in the upper hills. Bradin knew that the houses there were some of the most extravagant in the area. But despite all the prior knowledge, he found himself impressed nonetheless.  
  
For one thing, the exterior landscape has been decorated to resemble a tropical paradise— palm trees, waterfall, colorful tropical flowers—Bradin guesses that those are Lea's mothers choice.  
  
He cautiously rings the doorbell, as if a rogue flamingo might jump out and attack him.  
  
Seconds later, the wooden front door flings open. Bradin looks at the person who came to receive him and he just stares at his greeter, stunned.  
  
"Hmm... the open mouth look isn't your best." She peers at him.  
  
This isn't how it was supposed to happen! Bradin had rehearsed this in his head... and with Johnny. Lea's parents were supposed to come to the door, he's supposed to charm her mom with "you must be Lea's sister," and make good with her dad by calling him "sir".  
  
But, no, Lea can't just be the normal girl who sits on the ottoman in her room and waits for her mother's beckoning call to come down the stairs. She had to be different from the typical She's All That heroine.  
  
Lea was the one who opened the door, looking radiant and glorious. Leaving her date with a dried mouth, not knowing what to say and unsure if he knows his own name.  
  
"Bradin?" Lea looks peculiarly at him. She's starting to get anxious, what if he regrets asking me to go with him—did she look that strange? "Bradin— " Lea's about to tell him that if he wants, he can probably still go stag and there are likely to be lots of available and even unavailable girls—  
  
"You look beautiful." Bradin blurts out, interrupting her mental speech.  
  
Lea looks sideways shyly. "Um, thanks. You look good too, Bradin. I like the tie."  
  
She gives him a genuine smile.  
  
Ava had selected Bradin's attire for him, after finding him in midst of, well, his entire wardrobe. She chose a cerulean blue collared shirt with slate grey slacks, pairing it with a ivory-pale yellow silk tie, borrowed from Johnny's collection, retracting her earlier decisions about the blue tie because "Blue on blue is too much... The shirt is enough to bring out your eyes." Who is he to argue with the fashion designer?  
  
"Well, come in!" Lea moves aside to let Bradin in. At this time, Lea's parents have come back into the nook.  
  
Bradin looks at Lea's parents and immediately he remembers when Lea had told him that J.B. takes after her father. Mr. Noel is, in a nut shell, the older version of J.B., the same green eyes, the same defined nose, the same strong cheek bones, the same sandy blonde hair minus the gelled spikes.  
  
"You must be Bradin." Mr. Noel speaks. There is still a slight French accent resonating in his words, "I am Jean-Bastien Noel the Third."  
  
"Good evening," Bradin answers. "Sir," he adds as he takes the hand that Mr. Noel offers him.  
  
He can hear Lea stifle a snicker next to him.  
  
"Hello Bradin." Mrs. Noel smiles kindly at the handsome boy who's come to escort her daughter, and shakes him with two hands.  
  
"Mrs. Noel." In his other hand, Bradin pulls out a small but tasteful bouquet of flower from behind his back and hands it to her.  
  
Mrs. Noel appears pleasantly surprised. She looks at Lea and says, "I like him already!"  
  
"I think I'm developing an ulcer." Lea mutters under her breath.  
  
She then turns to Bradin, "Please, call me Keala. Mrs. Noel sounds so old, and it gives her father a big head." Keala Noel slightly nudges her husband. A mischievous twinkle shone from her eyes which were still beautiful despite the signs of age.  
  
Jean Bastien Noel III's eyes sparkled as he looks at his wife and then tells Bradin, "_Ma chérie_ and I, it was love at first sight." He grins, and puts his arms around her. Mrs. Noel slightly slaps at his hand but smiles at the same time.  
  
After a round of pictures that left Lea seeing so many stars that she thought she must be at a Hollywood premier, they were finally allowed to leave.  
  
Keala Noel drew in a sharp gasp as she watched Lea pull on her shoes.  
  
Lea and Callie had decided that as a protest against heels—which they agreed to be a misogynic male designer's way of torturing women—they are both going to wear converse sneakers instead. It took Lea a while to find the yellow ones that would go with her dress, but she managed, and it added a tasteful impishness to the effect.  
  
"Lea— " Mrs. Noel looks at her daughter with a frown.  
  
"Mom! We're trying to make a statement. Plus it's not that big of a deal, it's just homecoming, everyone ends up barefoot anyways. Look, these are new and everything." Lea airily waves away her mom's apprehension.  
  
Mrs. Noel smiles apologetically at Bradin, "I'm sorry child, I swear I've raised her better than this. When she was little— "  
  
Mr. Noel quietly edges Bradin towards the door, he knows how his wife can get. "I think she looks wonderful, don't you, Bradin?"  
  
"I completely agree," Bradin feels nothing but adoration as he watches Lea tuck in her laces and stand up, "uh, sir."  
  
Lea rolls her eyes at him. But Bradin just widens his own baby blues at her in a "What?" manner.  
  
As Lea and Bradin head out the door, Mr. Noel puts in his usual fatherly word, "Keep my daughter in one piece, young man." The Noels have never imposed curfews, their children have never given them reason to.  
  
"Yes sir." Bradin solemnly nods.  
  
Lea's mom gives her a kiss. Then Lea's dad reaches for his daughter to give her a quick hug, "Keep an eye on your _frere, comprenez_?"  
  
"Oui," Lea answers in the French on instinct.  
  
Lea pulls Bradin out the door and as she descends down the three stone steps towards her driveway, she hears her father call after her, "_Anastasie! Laissez les bons temps rouler_"  
  
Lea throws back her head in a laugh. The sound mesmerized Bradin and her carefree expression was like a painting in his eye.  
  
"_D'accord, Papa. À tout à l'heure_!" She calls over her shoulder as she follows Bradin to a silver BMW Z3 comvertible.  
  
She raises her eyebrow, impressed. "Bradin, you have connections that I don't know about?"  
  
"Yea," Bradin flashes her a smirk, "Johnny's really in the mafia."  
  
"I knew it!" Lea gives him a look like she believes him.  
  
Bradin opens the door for her, and she ducks into the car, "Thanks."  
  
He then rounds the car and slides into the driver's seat, turning on the ignition. "Anastasie?" He does his best to imitate the correct intonation.  
  
"_Je m'apelle Lealana Anastasie-Maryse Noel._ My middle name from papa." Lea replies.  
  
At the tongue twisting sound of the romantic language, Bradin's head immediately whips around to stare at Lea.  
  
"Oh my gosh! Bradin! Keep your eyes on the road!" Lea's eyes widen in fear.  
  
"I didn't know you speak French?"  
  
"You didn't ask." Lea says then shrugs. "It's no big. Plus my accent is so bad I think it makes my grandparents cringe."  
  
Bradin grins inwardly at Lea's modesty—whenever the subject approaches to a compliment towards her, she'd always dismiss it by a shrug or a wave of the hand, and the words "no big,"—another reason why he adores her.  
  
Bradin tosses a glance at his lovely date as he maneuvers the convertible down the switchback roads of the Playa Linda Hills, "You ready?" They have one more stop before the dance.

* * *

Derrick flips back the blinds as he scrambles away from the den and into the kitchen, where the adults of the beach house crew have assembled. "He's coming! He's coming!"  
  
Five adults and one ankle biter filter back into the den and they can see the head lights of a car pulling up. Nikki must have heard the commotion from her loft because she is stumbling down the stairs to join them.  
  
"The camera!" Erica suddenly turns around.  
  
"It's in the den already." Johnny answers, taking her by the shoulders and directing her back around towards the front door.  
  
"Is there film in there?" Susannah asks.  
  
"It's digital!" Jay replies  
  
"So is there film?" Susannah looks at him, waiting for an answer.  
  
"It doesn't use film!"

* * *

Outside, Bradin pulls the Z4 next to the curb. He hops out of the driver's seat and quickly routes over and opens the door for Lea.  
  
It's part of the deal for Johnny's car—he'd bring Lea over before they went to the dance so his family can fawn over her.  
  
Lea had figure that the beach house might get a little excited about the occasion—no matter what anyone says, they're a family in their own unconventional way, and every good family makes a big deal about sending one of their wards to a school dance.  
  
Bradin protested, groaned, and pouted profusely. He tried to explain to everyone that he and Lea are only going as friends, but they just weren't having it. Left with no choice, Ava went to Lea directly when she was over studying one day, and of course Lea cheerfully agreed. The beach house crew has always made her feel welcomed, and she enjoys the buzz and hum of the beach house. Bradin was promptly overruled.  
  
So here he is, taking her to The Beach House With Padded Walls.  
  
Bradin holds out his hand to help her out of the car. When she took it, he notices how soft her skin is and how small her hands are; and he thinks about what he wouldn't do to just grab her and pull her into an embrace, and drown in her essence. But knowing the folks inside the house, they're probably spying.  
  
Bradin gives Lea a wry smile. "Brace yourself."

* * *

Back in the den, a few are peering out the blinds, trying to decipher the figures in the darkness, while others wait impatiently by the door.  
  
"Oh! I want to open the door!"  
  
"What color is her dress?"  
  
"But you have the camera?"  
  
"Yeah, I saw it on the coffee table."  
  
"There's nothing on the coffee table?"  
  
"This is so exciting!"  
  
"What? Are you sure?"  
  
"Well, I can take a picture with my phone..."  
  
"Okay, hurry! Go get it!"  
  
"I'm going! Wait! Don't open the door until I get back!"  
  
"But they're coming up the doorsteps right now!"  
  
"Everyone STOP! Nobody move. I.Have.The.Camera." Ava holds up the electronic item in her hand. "Let's all calm down. You're going to scare them. Let's all breathe."  
  
Five adults and one thirteen year old engage in something that resembles a yoga breathing routine mixed with lamaze exercise. And in the middle of their second "and breath out," the front door flings open. Bradin's hand was mid-air as he was just going to open the door, but someone had beat him to it.  
  
He knew it! They were spying!  
  
Bradin and Lea look curiously at the people standing in the foyer. Derrick, who opened the door, leaps towards Lea for a hug, "Lea!"  
  
"Hey little man!" She swoops down to give him a hug.  
  
"Derrick! I wanted to open the door!" Nikki glares at her little brother but quickly turns her expression into a grin for Lea.  
  
"You smell nice!" The little boy speaks the truth.  
  
Lea laughs, "thank you!"  
  
Bradin peels his younger brother away from his date. Uh-huh. I don't think so. Hands off, ankle-biter! He thinks.  
  
But Bradin knew that he's anything from menacing right now, for the first time in a long time, he felt happy.  
  
Not that Lea has erased the pain of losing his parents, Bradin doesn't think that would ever be possible. But Lea has given him hope; for every end, there is a new beginning, and she makes him remember that there are still good things in life to look forward to.  
  
There is a silence as the beach house crew beam at one of their own, about to embark on a delightful evening with a girl who they were all keen on.  
  
For Ava, it is a moment that made her realize the rewards of motherhood—seeing Bradin so happy and elated. Vivacity glimmers through his brilliant blue eyes, reminiscent of the bashful young boy who used to run out from the barn to greet her in Kansas before life threw him into a tornado. Bradin has really turned himself around lately, and she is proud of him. She is also grateful to Lea because whether the girl knows it or not, Ava can see the effect that she has on Bradin.  
  
Johnny, Susannah, and Jay had wide smiles on their faces as well, partly for the two winsome teenagers standing in the doorway, Bradin has been through a lot in a very short time. For him to finally arrive at a happy place is a huge rock lifted in their heart. And also for their best friend Ava, who has taken on so much and has tried so hard to do right by everyone—they are glad to see that it hasn't all been in vain.  
  
Erica smiles as she takes the first move towards the two. She's glad that Bradin, who she has come to regard as a younger brother, has finally found a good girl to give his attentions to. And seeing Lea, a fellow local girl, who is in many ways a reflection of herself, reminds her of the time when her life was a little simpler and each day didn't seem to pass by so quickly.  
  
With their heads slightly tilted up (well for Derrick it's tilted up a lot), the two younger siblings gaze in wonderment at their older brother—their role model, their anchor. Nikki only hopes that one day, she can find a boy who can measure up to her brother, and who will look at her the way Bradin is looking at Lea right now. Derrick grins as he imagines what it'd be like when he's 16, taking the girl of his dreams, presumably Martha, to a dance—it seems to him like the time would only come after an eternity.  
  
Erica puts an arm around Lea first and hugs her, "girl, you look good!"  
  
"Thanks," Lea blushes.  
  
Susannah found her voice next, "Lea, honey! Lets have a see!" She takes Lea's hand makes her turn around so her critical fashion eye can do the one over. "That is a cute dress! Where is it from? And the sneakers—it screams "fun"! I see it! Oh! It's great! Where is the camera?" She starts to visually search around her.  
  
Once the silence was broken, everyone spoke at once.  
  
"Bradin! Taking care of my vehicle?"  
  
"Okay, picture!"  
  
"You remade the dress? Ingenius!"  
  
"Yeah, the steering is awesome..."  
  
"Lea, you're hair is beautiful! Will you French braid mine next time?"  
  
"Bradin! Bradin!"  
  
"Oh, we need to get one of Ava and the couple!"  
  
"Wait! I want a picture on my phone of just me and Lea!"  
  
"Whose sister are you?"  
  
"Yeah, well, she's smarter, and better looking."  
  
"What?"  
  
"'Fraid she got you there, my man."  
  
"I thought I was the one that lived in this house."  
  
"Smile!"  
  
"Bradin! Bradin!"  
  
"Yeah, in a sec, Derrick."  
  
"Say cheese!"  
  
"You clean up good for a Laker fan."  
  
"Heresy! Sacrilegious! Shaq belongs in the west!"  
  
"Oh, can you see all the details of the dress in the photo?!"  
  
"You two photograph really well!"  
  
"But not Jay though."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Did you have to put any product in your hair?"  
  
"So where do they hold the after parties now?"  
  
"It's gonna be, like, this bonfire thing."  
  
After a whirlwind of conversations and flashes, Bradin and Lea finally were released.  
  
As they head towards the car once again, Bradin looks at Lea, perhaps he's just overreacting but she looks a little tired already. "Man, I'm really sorry."  
  
Lea frowns slightly at him, "don't be!" She then smiles and softly tells him, "your family is great."  
  
Her words resonate in Bradin's head for a second, my family. Yeah, like it or not, that's what they've become.  
  
Minutes later, the silver Z4 peels off away from the light of the beach house, towards not just a night of dancing and good times, but an untold future that may be bittersweet at times, but promises love, laughter, and unforgettable moments.

* * *

A/n -- if you are a French speaker, and you notice that the words and phrases are not correct and would like to enlighten me, I am waiting with open ears. The chapters are getting long... is everyone tired yet? read/review/amuse me (grin). Oh hey, I worked in the scoobies this time! Was it too confusing b/c I left out the names? I wanted to leave it up to your imaginations... No really, it's not because I'm a lazy bum...  
  
I know what you're all thinking-- "God dammit they still haven't gotten to the dance yet? Um. Sorry?   
  
Next chapter is the dance afterparty = Bradin & Lea- ness. I like fluff! If you don't, well, tough. (grins)

**Melodie568 **- Thanks for keeping up with my story! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter..., and hopefully you liked this one too. did you like the Callie/Lea banter? I think that was my favorite part to write. Hopefully this story isn't moving too slowly for you, I tend to blab on, but for me that's what is fun about writing.

**Dolpinchick2568** - Good arm it is! (smile). Anyway, I'm glad you like the story! Hopefully I'm not keeping it moving so slow that you're about to chuck your mouse at the monitor. But the whole basketball thing gave me another idea for this story, even though I already have too many (frown). Happy reading & good luck w/ your story! I took a peek at it, and I enjoy your 1st person narration!

i should have thought of this before, but i didn't. Thank you **_icytigergrrrl _**for the suggestion.

**Mini French Lesson:**

_Ma chérie –_my dear, my sweetheart.

_Je m'apelle Lealana Anastasie-Maryse Noel _– My name is Lealana Anastasie-Maryse Noel

_Frere - brother_

_Comprenez - understand_

_Laissez les bons temps rouler – _Let the good times roll.

_D'accord, Papa. À tout à l'heure_! – Okay Dad, I'll see you later


	9. Can I Have S'more?

Disclaimer: I don't own the show, the character or anything. That's why it's so fun to mess w/ them!

* * *

Alone with Bradin, Lea is at a lost for words. She is afraid that once she opens her mouth, she'd simply just babble senselessly. Instead, Lea decides to keep her sights on the road.  
  
"Penny for your thoughts?" Bradin has noticed that his date is quieter than usual on their way to the dance.  
  
Bradin examines his date as Lea simply purses her lips, "My thoughts," she begins slowly, "are worth way more than a penny." Lea wrinkles her nose at the expression, _what a degradation of a good mind!_ "I mean, would you say that to Einstein? Or Newton? Or Leonardo Da Vinci? Well, Da Vinci was French so maybe not."  
  
Bradin chuckles lightly, despite noticing that she's trying to change the subject. Parking the convertible into a parking space in front of the school gym, Bradin hops out of the driver's seat and rounds the car to retrieve something from the trunk.  
  
Lea opens her car door, and is about to step out of the car, when she is presented with a colorful bouquet of scented blossoms.  
  
Bradin grins as he watches her expression soften.  
  
"Bradin!"  
  
"That is my name." He answers in a sing-song voice.  
  
"You didn't have to..." Lea stammers. She then looks at him and says weakly, "I didn't think..."  
  
"Well, I wanted to." He grins. "You didn't think that I would give your mom flowers and skip over you?" Knowing very well that she did, Bradin is feeling pleased that he's finally pulled one over her, moreover, he's proud of himself for being able to produce a smile on Lea's face.  
  
"I thought that was more of an appeasement, you know, to make sure only one member of my family wishes for your painful death ritualistically." In her long-winded, roundabout, prideful way, this is Lea's admission that she did think that he didn't bother to get her flowers, and had cared enough to be disappointed.  
  
"You underestimate the classic gentleman!"  
  
"No, I just underestimated you." _And the way that you can liquefy my heart like a nuclear meltdown with one simple gesture_, she adds silently.  
  
"Are you implying that I'm not a gentleman?" Bradin pretends to be shocked.  
  
"If the shoe doesn't fit..." Lea revises one of her favorite sayings.  
  
"Oh, it fits!" Bradin smirks, crooking his elbow as an invitation.  
  
"Modesty is lost on you." She shifts the flowers into her other hand, taking up on his offer, and the two enter the circus that is the Playa Linda Homecoming Dance.

* * *

The gym is decorated inside with the usual high school dance décor—paper streamers, cheap tablecloths, and eccentric centerpieces that will disappear one by one inconspicuously throughout the night.  
  
The festivities ensue with dancing, snacking, and of course, more picture taking.  
  
-Callie and Lea, forever imprinting the moment of their declaration against uncomfortable women's clothing.-  
  
-Bradin and Adam, who procured the oddest hats and suspenders from who knows where, looking very much the 60's film stars-  
  
-Bradin and Callie, grinning into the camera cross eyed, hamming it up for the photograph-.  
  
-Adam smirking and Lea rolling her eyes, he had picked her up in a hero- saving-damsel way, warranting several dirty looks from Bradin.-  
  
-Callie and Adam, performing an impromptu can-can routine inspired by Moulin Rouge.-  
  
-Lea and Bradin, laughing as they attempted to entangle themselves from a failed swing dance twirl move-  
  
At eleven, the masses are ushered out of the gymnasium. A few of them are heading home, a couple for hotel rooms, but most of the cars peeling out of the parking lot are headed for the bonfire after party.  
  
Bradin and Lea are seated in the silver Z4 again. When Bradin slides into the driver's seat after opening Lea's door for her, he finds her studying him with a bemused look.  
  
Her head is slightly tilted to the right, brown locks cascading down the other side, the moonlight hitting her shoulders and collar bone at just the right angle. Bradin feels mouth dried.  
  
"You having fun?" Lea asks softly.  
  
Bradin looks at his lovely date, whose tone reveals that she truly hoped he is enjoying himself, and he only wants to worship her, for always putting others before herself. "Yeah," he requites her with a meaningful smile.

* * *

The drive to the beach was a short one. Lea busied herself with the stereo settings, deciding that it'd be good payback to Johnny if she reprogrammed all his settings to Spanish radio stations.  
  
When they arrived at the beach, many of their classmates have already gathered around the stone pit, in which a roaring fire is slowly nursing.  
  
"You cannot bonfire without s'mores." Lea says as if it was a national proclamation as they trekked across the sand.  
  
She glances over her shoulder, waiting for his answer. Now that the dance is over, Bradin has loosened his tie, undone the top buttons of his dress shirt, and rolled up the sleeves. Lea can only smile at the sight of him as he jogs slightly to catch up with her, his blonde locks slightly mussed by the sea breeze.  
  
"Bonfire is not a verb." Bradin points out as he and Lea find a spot near the fire and settle down, warming themselves from the night sea breeze.  
  
Lea waves away the legality, "I'm just extending its usage, I'm sure the literary academies will not be too insulted. Stop trying to change the subject, we're talking about s'mores."  
  
Bradin's face wrinkles as he remembers the sickeningly sweet treat.  
  
"I've had s'mores before!" He winces again as he hears himself rhyme, yeah, that's really manly. "We're from Kansas! We camped on like a seasonal basis! Nikki used to shove those down my throat all the time." There you go Bradin, emphasize your ruggedness.  
  
After a pause for quick contemplation, Lea replies, "well, see, there's your problem."  
  
Despite knowing better, Bradin can't stop himself, "Nikki?"  
  
Lea rolls her eyes disapprovingly, "No! Bradin, you're going to traumatize her one of these days. What I mean is that you've never had a s'more made on a bonfire. At the beach." She looks around and spots the stack of wire clothes hangers. Lea reaches to acquire a couple and begins to straighten out the thin metal.  
  
Bradin grabs a box of graham cracker, a bag of marshmallows and a bar of Hershey's chocolate. "We're still talking about the same graham cracker- marshmallow-chocolate sandwich?" He waves the packages in front of her.  
  
"Unless you're from an alternate universe." Lea shapes a portion of the hangers into the shape of a horse shoe, then twists together the wires, creating a makeshift clamp. She nabs the ingredients from Bradin's hands, stacking them into the right order.  
  
"Okay, well, us aliens toast the marshmallows first?" Bradin reaches over, attempting to snatch the marshmallow so he can show her how to "do it right." His body is almost pressed against hers, and he can smell the fragrance of her shampoo. Derrick's right, she does smell good.  
  
"Patience, young cricket." Lea stretches her hand far behind her, she feels his nearness, and hopes that the only reason why her cheeks are so flushed is because the fire is really warm. Surely the bubbliness she feels in her stomach is just the belated carbonation from the soda she drank earlier.  
  
She nudges him lightly to move back over. Bradin pouts slightly as he observes curiously as Lea proceeds to stick the entire sandwich into her contraption, and roast the entire thing over the fire.  
  
Only Lea would insist on making s'more production an exact science.  
  
Pulling the sandwich away from the cackling flames, Lea extinguishes the marshmallow that had caught on fire and deftly edges out the sweet, offering it to Bradin, "Hurry, take it, it's hot."  
  
Bradin rolls her eyes, "Oh yea, doesn't matter if _my_ fingers burn off," but relieves her fingers of the toasted sandwich anyways.  
  
"Be a man." She grins  
  
Bradin snorts softly, "Touché!"  
  
Lea's eyes widen, "that's the first time I've heard you use that word!"  
  
"Because it's the first time I've ever used it. Remind me never to do it again. You're a bad influence, Lea." He wrinkles his noise.  
  
She ignores the dig and points at the simple delicacy in his hands. "Try it!"  
  
One look at the Lea's earnest eyes told Bradin that he couldn't say no. Not that he really wants to anyway. If his excess consumption of sugar can bring a smile to her face, he'd gladly take a job at the M&M factory as a taste tester.  
  
Gingerly taking a bite, Bradin suspiciously chomps down his jaws, preparing himself for the saccharine combination of melted marshmallow and cold chocolate, and hard graham crackers.  
  
Lea gages his reaction carefully. When Bradin doesn't gag or spit out a mélange of gooey graham crackers, she counts her victory. "Admit it! It's good! It's the best s'more you've ever had!"  
  
Bradin only looks at her with a look of forfeit. Lea goes on to enlighten Bradin on her theory that toasting the entire thing rather than just the marshmallow is what accomplishes the sandwich. "And I think the sand gives it an added flavor."  
  
As Bradin and Lea enjoy each other's company, a voice interrupts their comfortable peace.  
  
"Starting the party without us?" Adam and Callie approach them from the darkness. Adam has rolled up his trousers slightly, and Callie is holding her sneakers by two fingers.  
  
Bradin quickly pops the rest of his s'more into his mouth to free his right hand to exchange high fives with Adam.  
  
Callie settles down next to Lea, "Hey Lea, make me a s'more?"  
  
Lea shoots Bradin a Did-You-Hear-That look, "I should charge for my services."  
  
"Why don't we just make you a plaque? Lea Noel, Grand Champion of Juvenile Diabetes." Bradin retorts.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be sure to call the ambulance when you go into sugar shock."  
  
"You know, s'mores must be the epitome of gluttony." Adam says as he stacks together a double chocolate version.  
  
Callie's eyes widen, "And cheesecake!"  
  
"Root beer floats!" Lea pipes up as she pulls Callie's s'more out of the fire. She offers the wire to Callie, "Here, it's done. You take it out. It's hot."  
  
"Wimp," Callie rolls her eye at her friend.  
  
"Love the appreciation." Lea retorts.  
  
"What about caramel molasses pops?" Bradin brings back the previous conversation.  
  
He's answered by three very blank looks.  
  
"What are molasses pops?" Adam asks.  
  
"They still have those?" Callie vaguely remembers the treat from her Midwest cowgirl days  
  
"Molasses is edible?" Lea's brows are crossed disturbingly. "I thought it was, like, the unprocessed form of... syrup?"  
  
_Damn California kids and their strange ignorance!_ Bradin rolls his eyes, "well, it is, but it's edible!" In midst of his annoyance is a tender affection—she knows so much about too worldly many subjects, yet so little about what Bradin considers the basics.  
  
"Wait, so what does it taste like?" Lea persists.  
  
Bradin chuckles, "it's sweet."  
  
"Oh—" Before Lea can collect more information about the consistency and texture of molasses, a white round mass lobs towards the group, most directly at Lea.  
  
In any other teenage tale, this is when Bradin grabs Lea to pull her to rescue her from the big bad volleyball. But Lea Noel needs no hero in homemade full body spandex suits. She snaps back to attention just in time to catch the volleyball.  
  
"Dude, sorry!" A voice in the darkness floated towards them.  
  
Adam, Bradin, Callie and Lea turn their heads towards the sound. Lea tosses the ball back at the boy who she recognizes from her history class. It seems that a game of impromptu midnight beach volleyball is taking place not far from them.  
  
"Hey you guys wanna play?" Another voice proposed.  
  
Adam considers it for a second, "Yeah, why not." He figures most of the kids were too intoxicated to notice how bad he is anyways.  
  
Bradin looks at Lea, who shrugs, "I don't care."  
  
Callie on the contrary, wrinkles her nose, "I'll pass, I suck at volleyball." She's more of a soccer chic, you know, a sport that doesn't require hand-eye coordination.  
  
Adam is walking over to the court, pulling Callie up by force. "C'mon, that's why you need practice."  
  
Callie glances over her shoulder at Bradin and Lea, "You guys coming?"  
  
Bradin inspects Lea quickly and notes that her hazel-greens seem more lidded than they were thirty minutes ago. "Uh, maybe later."  
  
"Thanks, send me solo to the massacre." Callie groans as Adam drags her away.  
  
"When in doubt, duck and cover!" Lea calls after her friend.  
  
"Yeah, yeah..."  
  
Lea grins as she watches her friends become figures in the darkness; she draws in a deep breath, stifling a yawn.  
  
"Tired already grandma?" Bradin nudges her slightly with his shoulder.  
  
"No!" She answers immediately, but at Bradin's quizzically raised eyebrows, she confesses sheepishly, "well, maybe just a little."  
  
Bradin chuckles, "want me to take you home?"  
  
Lea softly shakes her head, "I'll stay as long as you want to."  
  
"Is that a promise?" Bradin speaks without thinking too much, not realizing what had slipped out of his mouth until moments too late.  
  
Lea's eyes quickly turn bashful, and she averts them away from Bradin's face. It would have turned into an awkward moment if one of their peers didn't decide to turn pyromaniac on them and toss a bottle of lighter fluid into the already roaring bonfire.  
  
Finally, our Bradin gets the chance to play hero, as he pulls a cowering Lea away from the animated inferno that leapt a foot taller instantaneously. In his arms, he can feel the coolness of her skin through his shirt, and the lack of distance between them makes his heart jump to his throat.  
  
"Hey, you okay?" Thank God his voice didn't crack.  
  
"Yeah, it just took me by surprise." Lea mumbles quietly. 

Encircled by Bradin, she feels as if someone poured a spell of warmth over her head, and she can feel it traversing towards the appendages of her body. The peppermint and white musk scent of his cologne, mixed with the smokiness of the burning flames is soothing, comfortable, and soporific, magnifying her drowsiness.  
  
Bradin keeps her in his arms—not wanting to let her go, yet too afraid to squeeze her tighter. A few minutes pass and he can feel the petite mass in his arms getting heavier, a sign that Lea is drifting further from consciousness.  
  
He shakes her ever so gently, then pulls her to her feet, "C'mon, Sleeping Beauty, I'll take you home."  
  
Too tired to argue, Lea complies, as she stood up, Bradin roughly encases her in the jacket that he's wearing. Of course, he could have just taken it off and given it to her, but then he wouldn't get to pull her close again.  
  
"If I send you home with a cold, J.B. might decapitate me." He quickly comes up with an excuse.  
  
"Mm? No, he's more into extreme torment. You know, Chinese water torture and the sort." Lea's voice is thick from tiredness.  
  
Bradin rolls his eyes but feels the ends of his lips curling up, even half asleep, she's always got to have the last word.  
  
The car ride home goes by faster than either of them wanted and soon they found themselves on Lea's driveway, which is shaded by several palm trees.  
  
"Well, I better go." Lea says, hating herself for not being able to come up with something witty.  
  
"I'll walk you." Bradin declares more than offers.  
  
The words "You don't have to," are about to slip out of Lea's mouth but Bradin has already hopped out of his driver's seat to come open Lea's door for her. As the night is ending, she wishes he'd stop being such a perfect date, it'll make Monday easier when she has to face things back the way they were, just friends.  
  
They advanced slowly up the low stone steps that led to Lea's front door, anything to prolong the night, even for a few minutes.  
  
When they reached the Mahogany double doors, Lea turns to Bradin and hopes that she's convincing at her good natured smile, "Well, you were a pretty good date, Westerly."  
  
"You weren't too bad yourself." Bradin smiles. He gazes intently at Lea, carefully memorizing Lea's face as to imprint it forever in his memory her features, and how beautiful she looks tonight.

Enraptured by his ocean blue eyes, Lea stands rooted to the ground, all logical, rational, coherent thought slipping out of her mind. For a second, she almost believes that they can stand on her front porch forever, enchanted by each other's eyes and forever succumbing to their reveries.

Then the magnetic forces that must span under the Noel estate kicked into effect, because Bradin feels himself leaning towards Lea, drawn in by that something in emanating from deep within her soul.  
  
And before he could stop himself, he captures her lips in a simple, delicate kiss.

* * *

A/N: Ooooh! They kissed!! This chapter is due for revisions and edits. but I just felt like updating. I've already written the next chapter, but I'm going to pace the updates to give myself time to edit and etc. I'm sorry if this story drags...(What kind of stupid story takes 10 chapters to get the main characters together!) mm... oh well. and I don't promise to speed it up either... sorry! don't kill me! cowering in fear but i promise bradin's heartfelt is coming 

**beautyqueen321:** Thank you for keeping up with the story, and thank you for reviewing! I am glad you like it, I've got some ideas for some action soon.

**melodie568**: Bradin will tell Lea he likes her, don't you worry about that! [wink] I much more for the boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy chase girl story line than the, boy is hot so girl must be jealous 24/7 story... [laugh] Thanks for reading and even more thanks for taking your time to review!

**icytigergrrrl:** Thank you for your long review! I took your advice and revised the chapter with a small note at the end w/ the french meanings. In truth, I don't speak french, at ALL... i had to look up the words at different sources... it took quite a while [sweat]. Hopefully I can keep you interested in the story, and hopefully you will keep reading! Thanks again!


	10. Rules Of Engagement

disclaimer: i'm disclaiming away, i don't own the darned show, characters, anything. just read and don't think too much on it. it is just fan fic.

* * *

The laces on Lea's yellow converse sneakers seem to be tied tighter than she remembers as her fingers fumble clumsily over them. Inside the closed mahogany front door of the Noel mansion, Lea is desperately trying to take her shoes off and stop herself from hyperventilating at the same time.  
  
He kissed her.  
  
She thought she was going to faint.  
  
It wasn't even a oxygen-restricting, tongues-massaging, spit-swatting, lip bruising kind of kiss, far from it.  
  
It was a relatively light kiss, but it tasted the chocolate and marshmallows. And he bit on her lower lip just ever so slightly before he broke away.  
  
10 short seconds of her life were enough to send her into post-lip-lock shock so severely that she can't even "... untie these stupid LACES!"  
  
Lea threw her hand over her mouth as she heard her own voice reverberate from the high entrance ceilings, not that there was anyone to disturb. She knew exactly where her parents are—in her father's study, which is practically in another wing of the house.  
  
She can see it in her head, he'd be sitting at his rose wood desk, shuffling papers, and her mother on the sofa with her legs folded beneath her, covered under a Hawaiian quilt, flipping through fabric swatches.  
  
"Finally!" She kicked off her shoes to the side and ran through her house towards the study, passing the kitchen, and the casual dining room until she got to a brightly lighted hallway with two doors.  
  
She knocks lightly on the door before entering, only to find her parents exactly how she envisioned. "I'm home." Lea says, a little breathlessly.  
  
A short conversation ensued, in which her parents asked her if she had enjoyed herself, how her brother looked when he was crowned, and other parental questions, before she could excuse herself to escape to her room.  
  
He kissed her... Lea's brain is mumbling the same mantra repeatedly to herself as she dries her caramel brown hair with a large terry cloth towel.  
  
Around the thirty-fourth repetition of the three little words, the fact finally registers, and Lea's about to start banging her head on the marble slab that is her bathroom sink.  
  
It was difficult enough leaving his arms when he held her by the bonfire, but a kiss, his kiss—as small and negligible of a kiss as it may have been—she's afraid it would become a drug. Not just any kind of drug, but the worst that there is—like heroin, angel's dust; one hit and you're hooked.  
  
As if it had found a second axiom, her brain starts repeating a different tune.  
  
"Why?"  
  
And a million reasons ran through her head.  
  
Is it possible that he just happened to lose his balance while standing, causing him to fall forward and brush upon her lips?  
  
Better yet, Bradin Westerly is really Lucifer reincarnated, ascending from the fires below to create unnecessary commotion in her life.  
  
Or maybe it was a fleeting instant of acute insanity.  
  
But most likely, Lea thought, in what she deems to be a logical way, he got caught up in the moment.  
  
It isn't as if he _likes_ her.  
  
Lea tears the preposterous thought up in little pieces as though it was the devil's contract. Life is not a primetime drama where every affection the girl feels is requited. _Don't be such a needy brat_. Lea thinks as she buries her face in her pillow.  
  
_The world can't perfect like that Lea_. She tells herself. She has to go to school Monday, ready to just be his friend, because that's all there is to them.  
  
Right?

* * *

Skateboard in hand, Bradin arrives at school on Monday. He strolls down the hallway, giving only half an ear to the buzz around him.  
  
It's the same at any high school-- after a big event like homecoming, the week after is usually consumed with the consequential gossip. He made out with Her; So-And-So broke up with What's-His-Name; You-Know-Who ended up with Remember-Him, mostly rumors, everything exaggerated.  
  
Too immersed in his own thoughts, Bradin pays little attention to the rumor mill today, Bradin is concentrated on his 'plan', which took him all day yesterday to devise.  
  
Sundays are designated The Beach House Ultimate Clean Up-Athon. Events include Speed-Clean Your Room, Muscle Bathroom Scrubbing, The Vacuum and Sweep Obstacle Course, and Johnny's favorite, Just Raid The Fridge.  
  
But Sunday could not have pass slower for the boy. Bradin thought that the sun would never go down and morning would never come as he shuffled around the beach house, being of little use to anyone, because all he could do was think about 'the plan'.  
  
As he approaches his locker, he is ready to put his 'plan' into action. He finds the locale to be arranged to his liking—Lea has already arrived and is speaking to a friend with her back to him.  
  
_Perfect,_ Bradin thinks as he reaches his locker. He draws it open quietly, making sure he doesn't make too much noise or interrupt Lea's conversation.  
  
While Lea is still talking to her friend, Bradin peers into her locker and notices her usual coffee tumbler. He quietly reaches in and snatches it—one of his morning habits.  
  
When Lea's friend disappears into a classroom across the hall, Bradin begins to open his mouth--  
  
Except Lea beats him to it, "Hey Bradin." _NO!!!_ Red warning lights flash in Bradin's head when Lea greets him before he could speak.  
  
But have no fear—after the girl decided to completely throw him off his game by opening the door for him at her house, Bradin had figured that he needs more than just one plan when dealing with the vixen known as Lealana Noel.  
  
Switching gears into the dialogue sequence where Lea commences the conversation, Bradin clears his throat, "Hey." He turns his attention back towards his locker in order to recollect and reorganize the game plan.  
  
Unfortunately, plan B is no where as smooth or polished as plan A. In fact, he had code named it the panic plan, where he's basically supposed to just blurt out, "I'm crazy about you, go out with me."  
  
Thinking that Bradin isn't paying any attention, Lea takes the initiative, "Bradin!" She tries to peer past his locker door.  
  
Bradin is silently saying a small prayer, _please let this work God, I'll go feed all the bums on the beach if you just let me have this one.  
_  
Lea slowly moves his locker door, and begins after she draws in a shallow breath of air. "Look, I don't want us to be, like, awkward. I mean, I get it. It is totally comprehensible that, you know, caught up in the moment and it didn't mean anything. It's totally cool, don't even stress about it." Lea finishes with a slight shake of the head, as if with that, the kiss has been erased from the brief biography of Bradin and Lea.  
  
Bradin feels the blood drain out of his head. _What is she saying? _All traces of plan A, B, all the way through the rest of the 24 alphabet letters, continuing onto double combinations AA, AB, and etc, flew out of Bradin's mind. Oh no, she cannot do this.  
  
"Don't stress about it?" Bradin's voice sounded strangely strained even to himself, "I'll have you know, I missed out on the ham roast leftovers because I was planning out this conversation! So Lea Noel, you are going to listen!"  
  
At his adamant tone, which he has never taken with her before, Lea phases into a vegetable state, where she can only widen her eyes and her voice box seems to have deactivated.  
  
_Ham roast?_ Lea is lost.  
  
"It did mean something, well, at least to me. It meant more than just something, it meant weeks of thinking of no one and nothing but you. I like you Lea, a lot. And it took more than a lifetime of courage to kiss you. Because now the thought of never kissing you again rips me apart, but the thought of you walking out of our friendship would probably leave me in a rigor mortis state."  
  
"Rigor Mortis—that's pretty severe, Bradin..." Lea meekly interrupts.  
  
Bradin stares at her, letting her know that he's not finished. "Severe would be putting it lightly Lea! I'm caught between a rock and hard spot, the ever elusive catch 22, I was nowhere yet I was stuck there. So don't tell me not to stress about it, I AM stressed, I'm so stressed that I washed my hair with body soap yesterday, and my hair is turning gray overnight. Every moment that I'm not with you, I'm missing you, and when you're near me, my heart pounds so fast that I'm afraid my rib cage is going to get dislocated. And I wouldn't – "  
  
But before the soliloquy is finished, a nasty buzz rings loudly above their heads, leaveing a resonating vibration in their ears. The first period bell.  
  
"Oh shoot! Econ!" Lea suddenly finds her voice and instinctively, she grabs Bradin's wrist and sprints off towards their classroom halfway around the school.  
  
Lea sees the door is still open as she dashes towards it, hoping to be able to slide into an open seat near the entrance and escape the wrath of the Wicked Witch of the West.  
  
For some reason, the tardy bell decides to ring annoyingly on time today, seconds before Lea could slip into the classroom, and when it ends, Lea finds herself face to face with Playa Linda's resident evil.  
  
"Did we lose our way on the way to class this morning?" A patrician looking, tall, thin woman guards the hallway of room 6-6. There is a malicious gleam in her eye as she inspects her prey, and a slow smile crawls across her lips. It's a cold day in hell when a teacher gets the chance to chastise Lea Noel. The girl has never even so much as spit gum on the sidewalk; correction, she just never gets caught.  
  
Bradin stares at the teacher who bears an eerie resemblance to the Evil Queen in Snow White.  
  
"I'm sorry Ms. Andersen." Lea says sincerely, silently adding on the words 'you infuriating hag' to her apology.  
  
"Well, Bradin, you're new, what can we expect." You'd think she's sympathetic but the condescending tone in her voice just gives it away. "But Lea, really, does the little princess not know her way around the castle?" Apparently, the woman harbors a irrational jealousy-hatred towards youth, the typical Captain-Hook complex, especially for those who bask in its glory.  
  
"It won't happen again, Ms. Andersen," Bradin replies as he nudges Lea forward. She tries to sidestep and duck her way into the classroom, but alas, Lea attempts to no avail, as Ms. Andersen slides her feet meaningfully.  
  
"Uh uh uh!" Ms. Andersen wags a bony finger at the two. "I will not tolerate this kind of insolence in my classroom. Promptness is one of the most basic rules of engagement. If you can't even grasp that simple concept then I'm afraid you have no business being in an advanced placement economics course. Have a good morning." With that, she slams the door with a powerful fling.  
  
The sudden gush of wind sends Lea stumbling a few steps, right into the chest of Bradin, and it's only at this moment that she realizes that she's still grasping on his wrist.  
  
Lea quickly relinquishes her death grip, "Oh God, sorry Bradin."  
  
"Hey, no worries, a few amputations never hurt anyone." Bradin winces lightly as he repeats the motions of balling his blood-deprived fist and then letting go.  
  
"Yeah, well, my mom's friend is in the prosthetic limbs industry. I can probably get you a new arm at a discount."  
  
They both took a second to laugh at the absurdity of their conversation.  
  
When silence consumes them again, they simply look at each other, Bradin with determination in his eyes and Lea with uncertainty.  
  
"Lea— " Well he might as well finish the speech, they were alone, and he's got 48 minutes until second period.  
  
But she interrupts him, "Bradin, you cannot possibly be that sure of your feelings, I mean— "  
  
"No, I am sure!" Bradin's voice is urgent; he needs to at least make her understand that it isn't just hormones, it's his heart, and mind, and soul as well.  
  
"How?" Lea's rebukes, almost desperately. She is praying for him to stop, to leave them some ground to stand on before the earth split apart, to give her a way out before she lets herself dive down the giant emotional canyon.  
  
"Because when my lips touched yours, the world fell away. I couldn't hear the dogs bark or the birds chirp, all I could hear was my heart pounding, and my mind saying that I had to have you."  
  
"Bradin,"  
  
He stares at her.  
  
"We don't have pets."  
  
"LEA!" Bradin feels like a vein is going to pop in his head from exasperation.  
  
"Well, we don't!" Lea bites down on her lip—definitely not her best diversion move.  
  
Bradin glares at her, almost angrily. Infuriating as the girl is right now, she is also the only person that has ever made him feel such clear, intense emotions, the only person who has made him feel so truly alive. He gruffly reaches out and grabs her arm, pulling her into him before she can struggle. Lea stiffens in his embrace. "God Lea, just shut up and feel for a minute. Do you not feel how right this is?"  
  
Lea scours her brain for a renunciation, but finds none.  
  
"Be with me." Bradin sighs the words, his voice on the verge of cracking.  
  
He waits for her to push him away, waits for her to shake her head softly, to murmur, "I'm sorry Bradin...," waits for her to shatter his world.  
  
But nothing of the sort comes out of her mouth. And when Bradin feels her slender arms wrapping around his waist, her body softening against his, her head crooking towards his chest, he finally breathes. Bradin points his nose down in her hair and takes in the smell of her shampoo—memorizing the scent of his girl.  
  
He rests his chin on top of her head.  
  
"God Lea, I almost had to switch to my last resort."  
  
"What's that?" Her voice is muffled as her face is buried in his chest.  
  
"Knock you out with a club and whisk you off to a deserted cabin in an unnamed forest, away from civilization where you can't escape."  
  
"Lovely, I'm with the renaissance caveman." Lea's voice is wry as she makes an inconspicuous admission.  
  
Bradin grins, knowing that her eyes are rolling to the back of her head.  
  
When he doesn't reply, she quips, "Westerly, if stalking is illegal in California, surely you know that kidnapping is as well."  
  
"Hm... didn't think that far ahead."  
  
"Yeah, I figured that much."  
  
Another pause goes by as they just savor the feeling of being in each other's arms, the newfound warmth of that they've longed for.  
  
Lea turns her head slightly, the closed door of the classroom coming into sight. "Can she be anymore of a witch?"  
  
"Well, I'll let you know if I catch her wearing a pointy hat and carrying a broom."  
  
Bradin is still holding on to Lea; he's finally got her in his arms and letting go just doesn't seem like an option right now.  
  
"Bradin, are we just going to stand here for the rest of the period?"  
  
"Umm... I've got no objections." Yeah, he was right, she does fit perfectly under his chin.  
  
"Hey, Bradin! Where's my coffee?" Lea's voice is suddenly alert.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You took my coffee earlier."  
  
"How'd you know?"  
  
"Because you always take it! Where is it?"  
  
"Oh, I must have left it. Back at the lockers, when you decided to drag me along your 50 meters dash practice..."  
  
Lea ignores the complaint, there are more important matters at hand. "I need my caffeine."  
  
"Lea! I think instead of oxygen, your red blood cells carry caffeine."  
  
"That's highly impossible,"  
  
"Well, don't you worry your pretty little head about it."  
  
"How much longer is first period?"  
  
"A little less than thirty minutes?" Bradin guesses.  
  
"Let's go to Starbucks."  
  
"Is the world coming to an end? Because I swear that you just suggested that we ditch school."  
  
"Well, there's no point in just standing in the hallway, she's not gonna open the door."  
  
"True. But I'm comfortable like this." Bradin squeezes her shoulders lightly.  
  
Much to Bradin's annoyance, Lea wriggles herself out of his embrace, once again pulling him at a ferocious pace, this time towards the parking lot.  
  
"Hey, what's the hurry?"  
  
"We have to get back before second period? I'm not missing two classes in one day." Lea wears a expectant expression. 

Bradin halts his steps abruptly, causing Lea to whiplash into his arms. Before she can protest, Bradin stills her by the waist and steals her lips, tasting her delicious peach flavored lip gloss. This time, Lea is conscious enough to return his efforts, conveying through their deepening kiss her feelings for him. Bradin feels her slender arms grasp onto his shirttails as they both attempt to lean closer towards each other.

Then, too soon, Lea softly pushes him away. With a roll of the eyes, she tells him, "The clock is ticking Westerly!"  
  
Bradin grins as he allows his girlfriend to tug him along towards her car. The sun looks a little brighter than it did when he arrived at school, and he can feels its warmth, and her warmth, radiating into his heart.

* * *

a/n: alright I wanted to get this up cuz I'm ready to write about.... forth on. Did everyone catch the show last night? in the previews, we've got sarah again. Personally, I'm pretty neutral towards her, because if she's not on the show, Bradin would probably get like. no lines. (i.e. last night) But here's my problem, they bring her back and in the preview her hair is straightened, so what, straight-haired sarah = sane sarah, wavy hair sarah = crazy sarah? if that's the case, she's got another thing coming, it's called **dissociative identity disorder!**

**melodie568- **Thank you for your review! Hopefully you liked Bradin's heartfelt! It took me a while to compose it... I'm much better at being sarcastic and smart-assed, but the whole writing sincere genuine confessions part... takes practice.

**icytigergrrrl- **Thanks for reviewing!yes, they kissed... there will be more kissing... the extent of their physical relationship, and in what depth I'm going to describe them have yet to be determined... so... [evil grin].

**beautyqueen321**- no worries! reviews are appreciated regardless of length! Thank you for reviewing, hope you liked Bradin's desperate soliloquoy! Happy readings!

**Padfoot n Moony - **Lots of thanks for reading and reviewing the offspring of my runaway imagination! From your penname I'm guessing you're a HP fan, and I enjoy HP as well! Hopefully I've convinced you to keep with the story! Thanks again


	11. The Start of Part II

Disclaimer: I own none of the below: Summerland, Bradin, the characters, and etc.

* * *

"Bradin?" Lea anxiously reaches up to her eyes, only to pat at Bradin's warm hands, which are both covering her eyes at the moment.   
  
"Yeah?" Bradin tilts his head sideways from behind to verify Lea's eyes, he hated to cover up her luminous orbs, but this is for the greater good. "You're not peeking are you?"  
  
It's a random Saturday morning and Bradin had been plotting this date for a while now.   
  
The more time that he spends with Lea, the more he realizes how much there is to the girl behind the pretty eyes, behind the cross country medals, the good grades, and the unassuming smile.   
  
Being from completely different backgrounds, their experiences are time zones apart. They spend a lot of time simply talking, sharing their thoughts and feelings on everything and anything that happens upon their minds at the moment. Bradin doesn't think he can ever tire of their conversations, he wants to know everything about her; and there is also so much about himself that he'd like to share with her, which leads to the events of today.  
  
"No, I'm not peeking...but..." Lea answers while squinting through his eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse in between his fingers.  
  
"Good." He whispers close to her ears. The warmness of his breath transcends onto Lea's nape sending a cool tingle down her arms.   
  
She quickly draws a breath herself and squares her shoulders. Clearing her throat, she asks, "where are we going?"   
  
"Stop asking! It's a surprise! Look up the definition, woman!" Bradin smirks in the way that he knows can make Lea roll her eyes but want to kiss him at the same time. It's a shame she can't see it at the time being.  
  
"I would need to be able to see to look it up..." Lea strains her ears and attempts to rely on her other senses to deduce their locality.  
  
"Well, I guess you'll have to do it later then." The smirk turns into a genuine smile as he ushers them towards the final destination.  
  
"Bradin?" Lea tentatively sniffs the air.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"It smells!" Bradin feels her nose wrinkle slightly.  
  
The pungent aroma of their surroundings is actually one that smells of nostalgia for Bradin but he understands that Lea may not see its charm, "well, hold your breath."   
  
"Hmm, voluntary suffocation is not my favorite way of suicide."   
  
"Don't worry! If you faint, I'll revive you. The whole mouth-to-mouth thing? I'm pretty good at it." Bradin assures her smugly, thinking that, in fact, he doesn't mind performing CPR on Lea at all.  
  
Lea coughs slightly, she'll get him back for that one later. "Okay, seriously Bradin, it's really pretty, uh, odorous here. Where are we?" She feels a halt in their movement.  
  
"Ready?" Bradin is grinning widely to himself.  
  
Lea rolls her eyes as best as she can with them closed. "What am I supposed to be ready for?"   
  
He finally removes the screen of his palms from her eyes.  
  
Lea blinks several times, adjusting to the light, and then everything came into focus.  
  
"Oh," she pauses, blinking a few times to confirm her vision, "my gosh!" She exclaims, jumping back and colliding into Bradin.  
  
Bradin chuckles and steadies his girlfriend. Giving her a soft peck on the cheek and brushing her arm lightly as he passes, Bradin moves forth to pat the shiny black coat of the immensely gorgeous animal in front of them.  
  
He has taken Lea to a stable.   
  
Growing up on a farm, Bradin is used to agricultural animals—chickens, cows, horses, and the sort. Riding has always been a leisure recreation that he's enjoyed and he figures that Lea might like it too. He had wondered if Lea already knew how to ride. Seeing as how her family is rich, he wouldn't be surprised if somewhere on that vast property of theirs is a stable, housing rare and expensive thoroughbreds.   
  
"Oh my FREAKING GOSH!" Lea repeats again, as she edges cautiously but quickly towards the doors of the horse stall, her eyes as wide as watermelon.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Bradin grabs her wrist before she can take off sprinting. "Where you going?"  
  
"Preferably far away?" Lea answers in a bewildered tone. "That's a HORSE!"  
  
"No wonder they say you're a smart girl." Bradin smirks slightly.  
  
Lea, on the other hand, is not amused, in fact she's far from being amused. She's so far from it that she couldn't see the word even if you outlined it with flickering neon lights. "Shut up, Bradin!"   
  
"You've never seen a horse before?"  
  
"I've seen horses before... in pictures, at the zoo, on TV, you know, where they can't trample you?"  
  
Lea is making sure that she's completely hidden from the view of the steed as she positions herself directly behind Bradin.  
  
Bradin chuckles as her obvious movements. "I would have thought that you already know how to ride?" He maneuvers Lea back in front of him, both of them facing the horse. Bradin encircles his arms around her waist, making sure that she can't get away.  
  
"Oh my goodness, no! What part of me resembles Annie Oakley to you?" Lea snaps, there's a hint of frantic panic in her voice as she's made to face the tall, gallant stallion.  
  
"Hey! It's okay!" He lowers his head to softly nuzzle against Lea's neck line, hoping to soothe her nerves a little. "I'll teach you." Bradin says simply.  
  
"No, really Bradin, I've never been good around horses, or any other large animals with galloping tendencies."  
  
"So you have been around them."  
  
"Well, yes, technically. When J.B. and I used to get summoned to France to stay with my grandparents, I tried riding once but the whole swinging up to the saddle thing is really just not my cup of coffee."  
  
"Lea," Bradin is beginning to grasp the problem, "it's okay if you're not great at something."  
  
Lea's is strained as she watches the horse with alarm and perplexity. "Yes, it is okay, but I find sticking to what you excel at to be a good rule of thumb."  
  
He chuckles at the brazen confession of her own faults, "C'mon, just try."  
  
"Try what?"  
  
"Riding," Bradin replies matter-of-factly.  
  
"Ride what?" Lea's tone rises slightly in apprehension.  
  
"The horse, Lea." Bradin attempts to move forward with Lea in his arms, but she is firmly planted to the ground like an ancient sequoia tree.  
  
"Umm, how 'bout no? Oh wait, I've reconsidered, I mean, no way in hell!" Lea attempts to wiggle out of his arms as she maps the fastest way to the stall doors in her head.  
  
Bradin chuckles, he's enjoying the unadulterated reaction that Lea is exhibiting. "You're not scared, are you?"  
  
"Oh you bet I'm afraid, I'm petrified, in fact, I think I'm about to keel over and vomit."  
  
Bradin frowns pensively, "I doubt that Mars here will like having you puke in his stall."  
  
"His name is MARS?" Lea utters the name as if it is poison.  
  
"Yeah?" Bradin doesn't understanding how the name can be offensive.  
  
"As in angry, violent, vengeful, temperamental Greek god of war?"  
  
"As in the candy, Mars bars, Lea." Bradin has always suspected that too much knowledge drove people to paranoia.  
  
"Oh." Lea silences herself lamely.  
  
"Yeah." Bradin releases her only to turn her around, and make her face him.   
  
"Okay." Entranced by the glitter in Bradin's eyes, Lea forgets the brilliant excuse that she had previously formed in her head.  
  
"Okay." He grins, chalking up one victory for himself.  
  
"Oh my gosh, Bradin, this is insane." Lea sighs, shaking her head.  
  
"Calm down! Come here, he won't bite." Bradin feigns a small pout. He lets go of Lea and moves towards the black horse, "You're going to hurt his feelings."  
  
"Good to know you've got your priorities in order, Westerly." Lea mutters bitterly as Bradin drags her next to Mars.   
  
The stallion's enormity only seems to grow in Lea's eyes as she is juxtaposed with the creature, "Oh my goodness Bradin what if he decides it might be fun to charge at me, pummel me to the ground and then proceed to tread over my body, compressing my bones into powder and mincing my tissues into ground meat?"  
  
"No, I promise, he won't. Mars is one of the most tamed horses I've ever seen. I'm sure he'll take to you, Lea."   
  
"It's really okay, having Mr. Rogers as my best friend was never a life goal of mine."  
  
"Lea, c'mon."  
  
"In fact, I've never even watched Mr. Rogers, I was always more of a Sesame Street kid... you know, hand puppets, monsters popping out of trash cans, counting vampires? That sort of thing I can handle." Lea turns on her best coping device— irrelevant speech.   
  
"Big Bird is, you know, big?" Bradin decides to humor her for a second, hoping to prove to her that the horse is not going to make any sudden dangerous movements that will expedite them towards an untimely death.  
  
"Yes, but he's also yellow, fluffy, and relatively unthreatening."  
  
"I'm sure his beak qualifies as weaponry."  
  
"Hmm...." Lea is momentarily distracted in contemplation, before Mars shuffles his feet in the stall and slightly bobs his head. At the movement of the horse, Lea is immediately spooked, "Holy crap!"  
  
"No, no, Lea, it's okay. I promise, he won't hurt you. Just try petting him first. Mars is actually kind of old, so he isn't as active as the more vigorous horses. If you really don't feel comfortable, then I really won't force you to ride him. We can just hang out and walk around the grounds or something." Bradin implores sincerely.  
  
When Lea still doesn't look convinced, Bradin lowers his face close to hers, close enough so their lips almost brush when he softly speaks, "for me?"  
  
Lea finds herself holding her breath as she stares into Bradin's clear blue eyes, almost hypnotized by its crystal qualities. She can only give in. "Ugh, FINE!" Lea examines the horse warily, but now with a newfound interest. "So, how do you even get UP there?"  
  
Bradin chuckles, he knew that he'd convince her one way or another. He opens the stall doors, and lets Lea out first. Bradin follows Lea out with Mars' reins in his hands, leading them towards a more open space.  
  
"Okay, so you put your foot in the stirrups like this..."

* * *

The following Monday at school, Bradin, Lea, Adam and Callie are gathered around Lea's locker, trading stories of their weekend.  
  
Bradin puts his hand on Adam's shoulder to support himself as he shudders from laughter, "you should have seen the look on her face, man, it was so hilarious!"  
  
"Okay, the horse was like, really... large." Lea scowls at her boyfriend as they recount their date to their friends. "I mean, sorry if I'm not a member of Barnum and Bailey's"  
  
"Aww, don't pout Lea, you make me want to kiss you when you do that." Bradin lowers his lips to hers, grinning into the kiss.   
  
Callie and Adam roll their eyes and mutter something indistinctly sounding like "give me a break," and "get a room."  
  
"Remember when the fair came to the boardwalk a couple years back? There was this petting zoo and Lea was practically crying." Callie laughs as she recollects one of the first times that she and Lea had hung out when she just moved to California.  
  
Lea rolls her eyes, "That... rabid boar, was like... obscenely large! Honestly, if they slaughtered it, they probably could have rid starvation in a small third world country."  
  
"It was a pig! It was pink! It had a curly tail! It was BABE!" Adam guffaws.  
  
Lea rolls her eyes. "Oh you're one to talk! I remember in third grade when we went to San Diego Sea World for a field trip? Who was the one that started hyperventilating at the shamu splash show?"  
  
"Shamu is a killer whale. KILLER whale? Emphasis on killer? It should be called the shamu slash show..."  
  
"He's contained in a tank!"   
  
"Yea, of glass!"  
  
Just as Lea is about to remind Adam that the glass is probably meters thick and impenetrable, Lea feels a tap on her shoulders.   
  
She turns away from her friends to find herself looking at a tall African-American boy, "oh hey Jeremy," she smiles. Jeremy Miller is a boy on the varsity basketball team with J.B., consequently a recurrent raider of Lea's kitchen.  
  
"Lea, girl, let me borrow your locker." He holds up a poster size roll of paper in his hands, using it to point to the empty wall space above Lea's locker.  
  
"Yeah, no problem." Lea opens her locker and moves to the side to give Jeremy access.   
  
The lanky boy agilely grabs onto the top of the lockers, pulling himself up by pure arm strength, then secures his footing in the Lea's opened cubby. Lea hands him the scroll that she held for him. Unrolling it with one flourish movement, and he plaster the poster onto the wall.   
  
After he's made sure that all the corners are secure, Jeremy hops off Lea's locker and dusts himself off in the way that rappers do in music videos. "Alright, thanks Lea, I'll see ya later, girl." He saunters off into the crowd.  
  
The four friends lift their heads to read the freshly exposed sign.   
  
On a vivid yellow background of the poster, written with thick paint-based marker in a bold broad font:

> _BOYS' BASKETBALL TEAM TRYOUTS! _
> 
> _2ND WEEK OF NOV. AFTERSCHOOL. GYM. _
> 
> _Contact Coach Mortsen in the Athletics Office for more information._

__  
  
Adam smirks at the sign, "I'm hoping that it was a conscious team decision to leave out the verbs due to lack of space."  
  
Lea glances at Bradin and his expression gives his thoughts away like a supermarket worker at a taste testing booth. "You're thinking of trying out?"  
  
Bradin nods and shrugs at the same time.  
  
"What about football?" Callie raises an eyebrow.  
  
"Football is alright," Bradin answers noncommittally. "But in Kansas I actually played on the basketball team."  
  
"Then why'd you try out for the football team?" Adam looks at him quizzically.  
  
Bradin grins and reaches to put his arm around Lea, "so I could get that free last period with this one."  
  
Lea rolls her eyes, but the ends of her mouth are curling up regardless. She tiptoes and brushes her lips against Bradin's cheeks softly, rewardingly. Reacting to her touch, Bradin enwraps his other arm around her waist as they begin a slight public display of affection.  
  
Adam and Callie roll their eyes and cough conspicuously at the same time. "Shoot me, now," one pleads.  
  
"Only after you gag me first." The other implores in return.  
  
Lea and Bradin pull themselves apart in order to save their friends' breakfasts. Lea's expression quickly turns dim as she remembers a crucial detail, "Bradin, you do recollect that my brother plays on the basketball team right?"  
  
Bradin nods affirmatively.  
  
"Have I uh, alluded to the fact that he's the captain?"  
  
Bradin nods affirmatively again, this time slower, as a dreadful realization dawns upon him.   
  
Lea can already imagine the newest editions of history text books in her mind... 

> _The commencement of World War III dates to the year 2004. The first fires were shot in the obscure California seaside town of Playa Linda, at the most unlikely location—the venue of a high school basketball tryout..._
> 
> * * *

a/n: um this is sort of a pointless chapter? Well, there is a point, Lea's not perfect-super girl, and it's a transition, into the next part of the story. I admit, I'm taking my time with my updates because of the ongoing status of the show. I wanted to see what they did with Sarah when they brought her back, (I guess straight hair sarah is still crazy sarah...) in fact, I actually wrote chapters in which I also brought Sarah back as well, but shrug we'll see, there's a couple of places that I'd like to take this story so... 

**AlwaysAnalyzing**- Thanks for reading! Kudos for reading all ten chapters in one sitting! I'm afraid my story can get a bit tiresome at times, hope that it didn't make your brain swim too much! Hope you come back for more... I promise Lea and Bradin won't be just cuddly love all the time.

**melodie568**- Thank you for your review! Starbucks is the basis of my existence... so I just had to make Lea a caffein fiend. I hope you'll keep reading this story even if the updates lag until the season ends.

**icytigergrrrl**- Ahh! it's good to know evil minds still exist! One of the reasons why I'm lagging with this story is because I'm debating on how explicit I should make it... I don't want to be the polluter of young minds, but we all know that Bradin's had sex already and that issue will not go unaddressed with Lea.

**dolphinchick2568-** Thank you for your compliments! It almost made me ashamed to post this chapter because it's such a inane piece... but hey, not everyday can be heartfelt confessions right? Hopefully I can write something to take your breath away sometime in the next couple of chapters...


	12. Family Financial Planning

Disclaiming: I don't own them unfortunately.

* * *

Lea steers her car into her usual parking space near the school gym, quickly pulling the keys out of the ignition and hopping out of the car. 

Retrieving her bright yellow gym bag from the trunk of the SUV, Lea jogs into the gym and towards the girls' locker room.

It is Lea's first practice of the basketball season. Although the girls' team had started practicing two weeks ago, Lea had been excused until today because of her post-season cross country meets--Regionals, and then State.

Much to Lea's surprise, J.B. did not throw a colossal tantrum when Bradin made the Varsity boys' team, perhaps due to Lea's threats that she'd hide web cams in unnoticeable corners of his room and broadcast his private activities to all of Playa Linda.

After she changes into a navy blue and white practice jersey and silver basketball shorts, Lea steps into the gym, excited to practice with her teammates, mostof whom are old friends from 'back in the day,' when Lea played in the local youth leagues.

When she steps onto the hardwood, not only does she find several members of her team there already, there are also two unexpected figures.

Lea approaches the court, hands going to her hip as she grabs one of the individuals by the arm, "Unless a new daylight's savings time was declared, your guys' practice is over."

"It wasn't, and it is." J.B. replies while guiltily fidgeting with his finger band.

"Then why are you here? And why is he doing push-ups?"

When J.B. fails to answer her, Lea squats down to Bradin's eye level at the "up" position. "Bradin you don't have to go along with him!"

Maintaining his pose, Bradin gasps a breath and answers, "No, it's cool Lea, I can handle it."

At this, J.B. let out an audible snort.

Lea shoots him a lethal glare. "I should have known!"

Lea shifts her scrutiny between her brother and her boyfriend. She has half of a right mind to start screaming bloody murder, but rationally, she knows that she technically has no authority to interject. Not only will it just make J.B. more rancorous, it'll probably hurt Bradin's masculine pride in some incomprehensible manner.

Before anyone can say another word, an adult voice interrupts, "Lea!" It's the coach of the girls' team. "I need you over here! Boys! Clear out, please! My girls have a closed practice today, which excludes friends and family." She strictly demands.

Bradin shoves himself to a standing posture; he can feel his arms twitching from supporting of his own body weight for an extended period.

"I'll see you later," Lea shoots Bradin a meaningful frown, then walks towards her team huddling at mid court, all the while scowling at J.B.'s retreating back.

* * *

As soon as Lea gets home, she rushes to J.B.'s room, flinging open his door in a slam. She finds him tapping away at his laptop, headphones covering his ears. "Jean-Bastien Noel! I cannot believe you!" 

J.B. looks up at his livid little sister, tentatively plucking his earphones off.

"You better have a good explanation for this."

"I was helping him get in shape?" J.B. offers.

"He's already in shape! He played football the entire fall. Next excuse?"

"I was... helping him learn the plays?"

"I didn't see a playbook in your hands? Try again!"

"Fine," he throws down his magazine. "I just felt like it! Okay?"

"J.B. you have like, no diplomatic skills." Lea's eyes travel towards the back of her head. "You said you'd leave him alone!"

"No... I said that I wouldn't do anything to keep him off the team, and I didn't." J.B. corrects her.

Lea widens her eyes. "J.B.! If this is your idea of trying to protect me, your antics are quickly bordering draconian. You're punishing him for going out with me!"

"Not true, I could care less who he likes."

"Okay, then what is it?"

"I just don't like you liking him back."

Lea throws her arms in the air as a gesture of forfeit. "J.B., he's good to me! I don't see why you're so adamant about opposing this!"

"You know why! He doesn't know you! He's been around what, 4, 5 months?"

"Well, let me agonize about it!"

"I can't just 'let you agonize about it'! You know how it's gonna end, Lea. Don't make it hard on yourself by getting all involved."

"Okay stop, I don't need you going around predicting my break ups."

"You're getting too attached Lea, it's not smart."

"At any rate J.B, I have the right to choose my own heartbreak." She successfully silences him with her desperate plead.

Not wanting to explore the topic further, Lea gives J.B. a piercing look, and disappears into the vast maze of their home.

* * *

"It's official, I've been cursed." Callie practically slams her tray down on a lunch table occupied by Lea, Bradin and Adam. 

"What's the melodrama?" Lea asks as she feeds a ranch dressing-laden French fry into Bradin's mouth, he has one of his arms around her waist.

"You know that economics project?" Callie looks expectantly at her friends as she speaks of the junior class project that is the gossip of the hour since it gives birth to just as many couples as it breaks up.

"The very trite, utterly overdone marriage project?" Adam asks. "Dude, when I heard about it, for a second I thought I was stuck in an episode of Saved By The Bell."

"Okay, yeah, TV allusions later, my plight first." Callie waves off Adam bitterly. "I got Herbert Baumerson"

The table silences. Adam busies himself with picking out the onions in his sandwich, while Lea bites her bottom lip furtively.

"I'm sorry," Lea offers in an apologetic tone, but the ends of her mouth are turning up despite her efforts.

"Ouch," Bradin sympathizes. Herbert Baumerson takes the phrase class clown to an entirely new level as his ideas of comedy are somewhere between South Park and Ace Ventura.

Callie glares maliciously.

"Well, it could have been worse." Lea tries to console her.

"No, it really can't. Name one person you'd like to be paired with less than good ol' Herbie."

When Lea takes too long to come up with an answer, Callie rants on. "Yeah, no one, thank you very much."

"At least you don't have to carry around an egg or a bag of flour and pretend that you've procreated?" Lea offers meekly.

"And if it's any consolation, I got animatronic blonde number three." Adam says as he reassembles his now onion-free sandwich.

"No, it doesn't. Samantha is just an airhead. Herbert is annoying... and loud... pompous and irresponsible... and he never shuts up! Ugh!"

Lea silently chuckles.

"Oh yeah, laugh. Let me guess, you're paired with Bradin, and you guys have already picked out what stocks you want to invest in and which small tropical island you plan to purchase?"

"No! Bradin's not my partner. I got Lucas." Lea refers to the long boarder on the Playa Linda surf team.

Callie rolls her eyes, "Oh this is fair. You get future champion surfer boy, and I get aspiring no-talent comedian!"

"Well nowadays divorce rates are so high that you can always write separation into the blueprints early, and do the rest of the project alone."

"Yeah but then I'd have to do the extra work of having to calculate and report alimony payments! And knowing Herbert he'd never make the payments on time... I'll tough it out." Callie wrinkles her nose in repugnance.

"Staying together for the kids, huh?" Adam kids.

Callie ignores the dig, and turns to Lea again with a hopeful glint in her eye. "Do you think the teachers will let us trader partners? I mean..."

"I'm not giving you Lucas!" Lea says with a chuckle, not even realizing how the statement might have sounded. "Speaking of which," Lea says as she gathers the empty containers and sandwich wrapper that remain "I gotta go meet previously said surfer in the computer lab."

Bradin pouts slightly before Lea leans down to give him a soft kiss on the cheek. "You're coming over to the beach house today right?"

"Yeah, I'll be there after dinner." Lea picks up her tray.

She climbs away from the lunch bench, but Bradin grabs her by the wrist before she can get too far. Before she has time to protest, he pulls her down to plant a deeper kiss on the mouth, running his tongue quickly across her bottom lip.

When he lets her go, he sucks on his tongue for a second, hollowing his cheeks. "Remind me to get the pudding next time too." He tells her with a mischievous grin.

Callie and Adam choke disgustedly in synchronized motion, as Lea blushes lightly and furrows her brows in a disapproving but amused manner. "I'll see you LATER, Bradin. Bye guys."

At Lea's retreating figure, Adam clears her throat distinctly, while giving Bradin a meaningful look.

"What?" Bradin furrows his brows quizzically.

"She's going to meet Lucas."

"Yeah, I heard her. They're partners, for the project."

Callie seems suddenly very interested in his sandwich, not looking up or participating in what she considers to be a precarious conversation.

After a second of contemplation, Adam purses his lips. "You're right. It's just a project. Nothing to worry about."

"So obviously there's something you're insinuating." Bradin puts down his Snapple, waiting for an answer.

"Well, Lucas and Lea have always kinda been really close"

"They're good friends, Lea's told me." Bradin says with a degree of certainty.

"So you know that the Star Wars duo used to be a couple." Adam states.

"Yeah, but that was a long time ago though?" Bradin tries to recall a piece of Lea's biography.

"But he took her to all the dances that I didn't take her to, and most of the dances at his old school, even after they broke up."

"Yeah but, Lea says they went just as friends, like default dates."

"You and Lea went to Homecoming, 'just as friends'?" Adam reminds Bradin with a smirk.

Bradin is quickly silenced.

"They tell everyone that they're just close friends, but if you ask me, one of the torches is still burning brightly."

"BUT it's not like you have anything to worry about Bradin." Callie finally speaks up to reassure Bradin. "Lea would never cheat."

"Which doesn't say anything for Lucas." Adam quips.

Callie immediately shoots him a warning look that quickly quiets him down.

"You guys just like to analyze everything too much." Bradin dismisses the topic, but inwardly, he can already feel a pang of anxiety establishing in the pit of his stomach.

* * *

"Hey boyfriend!" Lea says brightly as she walks through the door of Bradin's room at the beach house. 

He looks away from his reading and props himself up on his elbows from his laying down position on the bed.

Lea immediately notice the packs of ice placed on his shins. "Bradin, what happened to you?"

"Um..." Bradin stalls as he concocts an answer.

Lea cuts to the chase quickly, "what did J.B. do?"

"He didn't do anything." Bradin skirts around the issue.

"What did he have you do?" Lea reforms her question.

"Uh boxes." Bradin quietly refers to a jumping exercise that requires one to jump from a standstill position onto a roughly two and a half feet high box, supposedly working to increase the dimensions of one's vertical.

"How many?"

"Let's just say that I was there for an hour after team practice was over."

Lea sighs softly. "I'm so sorry Bradin. I'll talk to him." She had originally agreed to leave the issue alone, seeing as how J.B. insists that she has no say in the workings of the boys' team and because Bradin seems to be hell-bent on proving himself to J.B. But this is going too far.

"Don't!" Bradin fervently protests. "I'm fine, I mean, hey, it's really doing wonders for my physique don't you think?" He follows up impishly.

"Ugh, males." Lea rolls her eyes as she plops down on Bradin's bed. "What're you reading?"

"The assignments for the marriage project."

"Oh. What's the highlighted?"

"The parts that I'm responsible for. Maria wanted to just split up the work and then put it together at the very end." Bradin explains.

"I see." Lea peruses their assignment as the image of Maria Martollini flashes across her mind-- a quiet mousy brunette with silver rim glasses who looks too young to be taking her SATs, because, she, in fact, is too young.

Bradin's partner is essentially Playa Linda's answer to Doogie Howser-- a bonafide child prodigy who has skipped one too many grades. Though her demeanor is fundamentally sweet, skipping so far ahead has left her hopelessly socially inept-- she can never meet anyone's eyes when speaking and she seems to be petrified at the presence of the opposite sex.

Lea kicks off her sneakers to lie down on the bed. As Lea nestles up against him, Bradin extends one arm for her to rest her head in the crook of his elbow. As Lea cuddles next to him, the soft fragrance of her shampoo wafts towards Bradin and her comfortable body heat warms the Bradin's side.

When Lea finally finds a comfortable position and settles down, Bradin opens his mouth.

"Lea?" Bradin says, he's about to ask her about her project with Lucas, hoping that he can receive some confirmation that Adam's worries are unfounded and that he has nothing to feel anxious about.

"Mm?" A slightly thick voice answers.

Bradin turns his head, only to find himself looking into the face of a closed-eye Lea. The rhythmic inhalations of her breathing inform him that she's drifted off into a light sleep.

Her expression is calm, peaceful, and at ease. At the sight of her tranquil features, Bradin feels his worries vaporize. "Nothing." He murmurs softly.

She is in his arm, every trusting, giving, loving particle of her being. With this thought, Bradin puts down his papers, and turns to look at her again. Noiselessly, he leans over and presses his lips against her temples lightly, unnoticeably, as not to wake her. Then he lays back and rests his head on the soft pillow behind him, contemplating how the girl next to him can make him feel like the luckiest boy alive simply by uttering his name, and smiling in his direction.

Silently, he savors the words on the tip of his tongue, "I love you."

* * *

**a/n:** Lucas from this week's surf tryouts episode! I'm glad they wrote in another guy character because it gave me something to work with. But don't worry, Lucas won't be coming in between Lea and Bradin, or at least, he's not the one that's gonna be coming in between them Next chapter will start getting intersting. I promise (hmm I seem to recall myself saying the same thing at my last posting.... purses lips) 

**Melodie568**- Thank you for reviewing! I think horses are cool too. Sorry the story is coming a slight lull but uh.. it's the transition period. I promise there will be some fun.. well not necessarily fun but interesting stuff coming later

**Alwaysanalyzing**- I didn't have the heart to torture Bradin too much. Plus I didn't want to make J.B. out to be too evil... in my mind he's supposed to be a good guy of sorts.. Thanks for reviewing!

**Icytigergrrl**- I'm glad you found the last chapter to be amusing! I try to keep things light because later on there might just be some angst. Thanks for reviewing!

**Mandena**- Thanks for reading my story & reviewing! Hopefully you will keep coming back!

**Don't-ask -** Yes you get kudos and a half for reading all 11 chapters! The m&m kind too laughThank you for letting me know about the horses, I actually don't know too much about them, so it's good to know! When (if) I go back for edits, I'll be sure to do something about it. Thanks for reviewing!

**Dolphinchick2568 -** Hope your vacation in the Carribeans was fun! Hmm, maybe I should write Lea & Bradin & Co. on a vacation too... wouldn't that be interesting. laugh

**Tanya**- Thank you for reading! Yeah, there are very few Summerland fics, probably because it's a new series, and not very established yet. Hope you liked my story and keep coming back for more!

**Gnat10886**- thanks for reading my story & the compliments! And I also really appreciate the long review! Hopefully I can think of some more good substance to write and keep you coming back! Thanks for reviewing!


	13. Is This A Fight?

Disclaimer: I have no rights over these characters, or the show, or anything-- just the laptop that I'm typing it on.

* * *

Love is an unfathomable phenomenon.

It can be a wondrous revelation, invoking sensations of the warm and fuzzy variety. Love makes us see the potentials; love gives us hope; love can set us free.

On the other hand, it can also be a consuming malady, eliciting syndromes of the insecure and jealous breed. Love makes us possessive; love gives us doubts; love can set us down a path of destruction.

For Bradin, the days since his realization have been an endlessly swinging pendulum between the two extremes.

When Lea is around, he feels the need to put his arms around her, to keep her close, to follow her every gesture with an impassioned lover's earnest scrutiny. If she isn't in his immediate presence, he'd be longing for her warmth. He'd wonder where she is, who she's with, what she's thinking, whether the object of her reveries is himself.

Perhaps the symptoms can be ameliorated if he'd just articulate his feelings, but the image of the exchange and the repercussions it may generate, make Bradin break out in the cold sweat as if the devil ran across his grave plot brandishing his shiny scythe.

If only he had an inkling of what she is feeling. Of course, Bradin knows that Lea likes him-- they are going out after all. In Lea kisses, he can feel her warmth, her passion, her affection.

But for her, does that translate into love?

That is the reiterating question in Bradin's mind.

* * *

"Okay, so I'll write up what investments we chose and why, and you get to explain how inflation has affected our financial outlook." Lea concludes.

"Alright." Lucas reaches for Lea's hand to pull the pen out of her hand so he can jot down some notes on a piece of lined paper.

Lucas and Lea have been working the entire sixth period on their family financial planning project-- exploring investments, researching interest rates, and predicting inflation trends.

The two sit next to each other in the computer lab, their heads huddled together and shoulders slightly touching. Any one else would find their proximity rather ambiguous, but to them it isn't anything out of the friendly ordinary.

"That's it, right?" Lea scans her assignment sheet quickly while stuffing things into her backpack; she needs to get to the gym for basketball practice in the next six minutes.

"Yeah, I think so." Lucas begins to gather his things as well, with Lea helping him, stacking his notebooks and organizer and throwing away his waste paper for him.

When they've cleared their things off of the table, the two head out of the library and towards the parking lot of the school.

"So how are the waves in the winter?"

"Ah, tamed this year. Has J.B. gotten out there lately?" Lucas asks

"No, he's too afraid he'd get hurt. Doesn't wasn't wanna take any chances with the scouts coming out and all." Lea explains.

"Speaking of taking chances, you and Bradin?" Lucas asks.

Lea opens her mouth, but nothing comes out for a minute. Finally she musters out her sole feeling when it comes to Bradin. "I like him, a lot."

Lucas raises his eyebrows but nods to show his acknowledgement.

"I know what you're thinking," Lea speaks for him. "But I _really_ like him, Lucas. He's like, different. He doesn't mind all the verbiage, he's not demanding... to him, I'm just Lea." She explains with a shrug.

"So you think that things might...," Lucas searches for the right expression

"Work out? Last? I don't know. At the risk of sounding entropic, I figure I'd just roll with the punches...," Lea replies with a shrug.

When the parking lot materializes in Lucas and Lea's eyes, Lea halts her advance, mouth dropping open in mortification.

At her abrupt stop, Lucas bumps into her slightly. Following her view towards the open space, Lucas murmurs under his breath, "Speaking of punches..."

J.B. has Bradin pinned to the back of Lea's red, recently washed SUV. His face is twisted in anger, "stay away from my sister!"

Despite his position, Bradin's expression is undeterred, he narrows his eyes and glares back, "Damn it, J.B., don't you see? She's so much more than just your little sister! Lea is her own person!"

"How dare you try to tell me anything about her? You know nothing about Lea! You didn't think that she would ever really care for you? Do you actually think that she might love you?" J.B. sneers, his face only inches away from Bradin's.

"J.B., stop it!" Lea shouts as she breaks out into a run.

Lea's voice distracts J.B.'s attention away from Bradin. But she still arrives at the crime scene a moment too late, after Bradin's knuckles savagely connect with J.B.'s jaw.

It is a delayed reflex to the words J.B. spat in Bradin's face, the dig that hit Bradin's unspoken fears on the bull's eye.

Caught by surprise, J.B. tumbles back several steps, only to be assisted by Lucas, who breaks his fall and at the same time, stops J.B. from serving his revenge.

As she witnesses the scene, Lea's eyes widen in disbelief, if there is anything that she cannot forgive, it's someone hurting her brother.

"Lea! See what he is?" J.B. barks sorely, as he wipes several drops of blood leaking from the corners of his mouth.

Lea marches in between the two, forcing some neutral distance, muttering under her breath to Bradin. "You really shouldn't have done that."

At this instant, Bradin's heart is pounding like a hammer into hardwood. He had a nightmare like this a couple of days ago-- where in the end, Lea quietly nods and leaves his side, following J.B.'s lead away from him, fading into a mist of white, never even looking back.

"C'mon, Lea!" J.B. speaks up again, "send the boy on his way!"

Bradin holds his breath while he waits for Lea's reply, for the knife to dig into his heart.

"I...," Lea stares at the ground, unable to comply with J.B., but utterly angry with Bradin at the same time.

Lea's hesitation invokes J.B.'s irritation, "Lea!" He urges her to answer him.

"Just... stop!" Lea squeezes her eyes close, as if to freeze time, or maybe just to see if she can vanish from the scene through a slit in time-space.

When she opens her eyes, the scene remains unbothered, three pairs of eyes still focused intently on her. "Don't make me choose," Lea says in a tone of anguish.

"You're going to have to sooner or later," J.B. answers her severely.

"Don't, J.B." Lea warns.

Lucas's voice finally returns to him at this convenient junction, he pulls J.B. back, murmuring quietly to him. Although still obviously unconvinced, J.B. allows Lucas to drag him towards his car.

Lea whips around to glare at Bradin, who guiltily cannot meet her eyes, "what did you think you were doing, hitting my brother!"

Her uncharacteristic tone of accusation strikes a snapped string in Bradin, causing him to lash back, "yeah well, what were you doing with Lucas?"

"Planting bombs in the teachers' restrooms!" Lea exclaims sourly, "What do you think? You know he's my econ partner!"

"Well, everyone keeps telling me what an _item_ you guys used to be. It also seems to be common knowledge that that you guys have remained close. What am I supposed to think?" But the moment the words slip off his tongue, he regrets it.

The look of hurt in Lea's eyes sends a searing pain through Bradin's heart- - possibly even a pain worse than if she had chosen J.B. over him, because he personally put that sliver of sadness there. But he can't seem to find the eloquent paraphrase to describe his apology.

Lea quickly narrows her wounded expression into an icy glare. "I guess J.B. was right, you don't know me at all." She stalks off towards the gym, flinging the door open with such force that it hits the wall with a thundering boom, the glass panes quivering dangerously.

* * *

Only after exhausting all possible persuasion, Lucas got J.B. to go home. Lea and Bradin were still deep in their own conversation, so Lucas elected that it was best to excuse him from the scene. Thus we find him with a surf board in his arm, surveying a rather calm rolling ocean.

"Lucas!" A familiar voice calls out from behind him.

Clad in a black wet suit, a blonde head jogs towards Lucas.

Bradin plops his board down on the sand next to Lucas. His board needs a sufficient waxing, seeing as how he hasn't been able to maintain it much since he hadn't surfed since the high school surf season ended.

"Hey," Lucas greets him mildly, he had been too far away to eavesdrop on Bradin and Lea's conversation, but from Bradin's expression, he guesses that things didn't go too well.

"Thanks for you know, earlier." Bradin says awkwardly, if J.B. had caught the conversation between him and Lea, he's sure to be donning a black eye to match J.B.'s bruised jaw.

"Don't sweat it," Lucas replies. "So, what did Lea say?" He asks gingerly.

Bradin winces, "I'm pretty much scum of the earth."

Lucas chuckles despite of himself, "yeah, the sibling protectiveness goes both ways in that family."

Bradin looks up from waxing his board, "so how do you know them so well, Lucas? I thought you were new to Playa Linda High too?"

"Oh, J.B. and I used to surf on the same youth competition circuit. Our families' have known each other for years." Lucas answers with a shrug.

"Yeah?" Bradin replies what he hoped to be a nonchalant tone, but inwardly, those words thrash him even more than imaginable. That sentence describes what he has been fighting against-- trying to break through the barrier of the locals.

Suddenly, Lucas focuses on Bradin, his voice interrupting Bradin's train of thought, "Listen man, be good to Lea. She's one of those Once In A Lifetimes"

Taken aback by his straightforward mention of his past relationship, Bradin just stares back for a second. Then he decides to take the chance to ask a question he's been wondering for some time, "Like, what happened with you guys?"

Lucas draws a shallow breath, "the world got in the way, you know? And we weren't able to stand up to it."

Bradin quietly accepts the ambiguous answer.

After a moment, Lucas begins again, "But you, you have a chance. You know, you mean a lot to her. She really likes you. You make her really happy, like no one else can. It's so obvious." There is a hint of regret, and maybe even a dash of jealousy in his confession.

Bradin takes in his words intently, chewing on each one like a piece of aged beef jerky.

Lucas can see that Bradin has sunk into his own thoughts. He shifts his glance towards the ocean, "the waves are nonexistent today, man." Lucas sighs softly, and picks up his board, "I'll see you around."

The sun has waned halfway below the aqua line, and cool gusts have picked up on the shore. A draft of cold wind shivers Bradin out of his ponderings, forcing him to pick up his board and head back towards the house.

As he sticks his board into the sand, Erica, Jay, Johnny and Ava appear in the patio, carrying various tropical drinks in hand.

"Hey Kansas!"

"Hey." Bradin gloomily answers.

"Who ran over your puppy?"

Bradin rolls his eyes, too drained to think of a good comeback.

"What's wrong, Bradin?" Ava asks in a softer tone.

"I screwed up."

Jay frowns, not understanding at first, but catches on quickly. "Trouble in paradise, mate?"

"I punched her brother."

"Oh ho!" Johnny shakes his head, "that's a flagrant foul."

"And then I accused her of still having feelings for Lucas."

"Ooh," Erica winces, "never a good move."

Ava shoots the adults a look of warning. They are supposed to help the situation, not kick him while he's down!

"Well, give us the whole story boy! What happened?" Jay asks for the entire story.

"Well, J.B. was giving me crap, so I punched him. Then Lea got mad, I got defensive, she walked away." Bradin gives them the abridged version of the events.

"Now honey, you know that violence..."

"Doesn't solve anything, yeah, I know." Bradin cuts off his aunt.

"Her brother has been giving you trouble for a while now hasn't he? What especially upset you today?" Johnny asks the perceptive question.

Bradin isn't ready to confess that he's really in love to his family just yet. Instead, he asks the question of the moment. "How do I get her to forgive me?"

"Beg,"

"Cry,"

"Grovel,"

"Serenade?"

"What?" Four pairs of eyes turn to look at Jay who suggested the last option.

"A good song, some public humiliation, gets them every time." He explains, pumping his fist slightly.

"Is that how you always get back in the good graces?" Erica teases him.

"Honey, I think you should just be honest with her. Explain that you just lost your cool and that you're _sorry _for resorting to violence." Ava puts emphasis on the latter part of the sentence, exhibiting her own disapproval at Bradin's mishandling of the situation.

"I don't think she's really talking to me right now."

"See, that's where the serenade comes in you see," Jay's explanation drops into a mumble at Ava's look of daggers. "Just trying to get some entertainment around here."

* * *

Lea pulls her red Freelander into the multi-car garage of the Noel mansion. Without collecting her backpack and duffel bag, she hops out of the car, slamming the door close with a fury that would shake even the depths six feet under.

"J.B.!" She shouts as she enters the house. Finding the nearest intercom, she punches the speak button, and yells into the speakerphone, "J.B.!"

Instead of J.B., Lea's mother greets her in the foyer, a slight frown hanging on her face. "Lea, my dear, there is no need to scream into the intercom, it is essentially a microphone." She tells her daughter mildly.

"Where's J.B.?" Lea demands.

"I don't know, I was in the backyard all afternoon, I must have missed him coming in." Mrs. Noel answers.

"Yeah, probably because he didn't want you to see his face." Lea answers bitterly.

"What are you talking about?"

"J.B.! Where the hell are you?" Lea shouts towards the stairs that lead up towards J.B.'s room.

After a few minutes, J.B. skulks down the stairs, a piece of steak held delicately against his cheek.

"J.B.!" Mrs. Noel exclaims, "What happened, honey?"

"Bradin," J.B. answers bitterly, "Mom, I told you the guy is no good. Lea shouldn't be allowed to see him."

"Oh, exactly what is your definition of good?" Lea snaps back at J.B., before turning to her mother. "Mom, don't listen to him. He had Bradin pinned up against my car, and he would have beaten him to a bloody pulp if Lucas and I didn't break them up."

"I was just giving him a friendly warning." J.B. defends himself.

"Friendly my foot! You've been giving him crap since Day 1! Mom, tell him to stay away from Bradin!" Lea pleads.

"You're going to take that punk's side?"

"Juvenile much? I'm not on a side!"

"You're be supposed to be on my side,"

"But you're wrong!"

"I'm your brother!"

"That doesn't justify your sudden exploration into jerkdom!"

"I'm trying to keep you from getting hurt!"

"Do I look like I'm made out of glass?"

"You are getting in way over your head!"

Mrs. Noel looks mildly at both of her children as they continue to bicker. She holds up a hand, and clears her throat loudly.

"Since neither of you seem to have anything substantial to say, I'll let you know what I think. J.B., you need to respect and support your sister's decisions."

"Ha!" Lea gloats.

"Ma! Don't you see--"

"I'm not finished!" Mrs. Noel sharply says.

"And Lea, you need to understand and appreciate that your brother is coming from a good place,"

"So there!" J.B. triumphantly returns Lea's earlier smug smile.

"Coming from a good place... going in the wrong direction." Lea grumbles under her breath.

"Enough! J.B., despite how much we would all like to, we cannot shield your sister from everything in the world. And come with me child, steaks are for black eyes, not bruised faces, and yours is dripping blood." She waves him into the kitchen.

As her mother ushers J.B. into their kitchen, Mrs. Noel turns around to look at Lea, quietly saying to her, "honey, you know why your brother is concerned, please think about it."

* * *

**a/n**: Ouch! Bradin gave it to J.B.! Anyway, I didn't really catch last night's episode in full, because Olympic gymnastics was on at the same time... But I know that Bradin and Callie ended up together, so, I'm contemplating if I should edit the beginning of the story to fit the season finale or not. What do you all think? And does anyone other than me think that Callie kind of looks like a California version of Haley from One Tree Hill?

**Melodie568**: Thanks for always reviewing! Hope this chapter wasn't too boring!

**Dolphinchick2568**: Sure, I'll take the cookie! Hope you liked this chapter! It has been in the works for a long time.

**IDon'tWannaBe89:** Thank you! I really like the quirkiness of it all as well! What is life without a couple of quirks? [grin] Hope you keep reading and Thanks for reviewing!

**Dont-ask**: Sorry I couldn't get this in before you left for camp, hopefully you had a good time! Thanks for reading and reviewing, hope you liked this chapter!

**Gnat10886:** Hey! I hope you liked my characterization of Lucas! He just seemed like one of the good guys to me. Hmm, right now there are no big plans for Tanner in my story. Maybe a small cameo but nothing significant. The working in of the rest of the Summerland people is definitely something I keep in the back of my mind, but a lot of it ends up edited, just because I'm afraid I'd make my chapters too long.

**Icytigergrrrl: **You're right! The drama is a-coming. [purses lips] Callie and Adam are definitely two scoobies that I really like, I would also like to develop their characters a little more, so I'll have to think of a way to do that w/o making my chapters like 5000 words long. Anyway, thank you for reading and reviewing!


	14. How Lea Feels About Coffee

J.B. strolls through the swinging main double doors of Playa Linda High with his usual swagger, the same groupies trailing behind him, the coveted varsity jacket on his arm. But it doesn't require a double take to notice the two details out of the ordinary-- the unsightly bruise on his cheek, and the empty space by his side.

Unbeknownst to Bradin, Lea had left for school thirty minutes earlier than usual this morning; her arrival was witnessed only by the marching band brigade who is obligated by 7 AM rehearsals.

Hence, Bradin waited for her by their lockers until the morning hall monitor chased him to first period with a detention slip so long it reached next Friday.

In first period, Lea had chosen a seat close to the door, surrounded by a field of friends. When he entered the room, Bradin hovered around the crowd, hoping to at least catch her eye, but was soon deterred by several dirty looks.

Forced to take a seat on the outskirts of the room by the window, Bradin sinks into the period, shooting frequent and ill-disguised glances in Lea's direction. Nevertheless, Lea does not so much breathe in Bradin's direction.

Beaten into a corner, Bradin resorts to a measure from _Sixteen Candles_. He quietly rips out a page from his binder, and scribbles his plead.

_Can we talk please? I'm sorry._

The folded square travels six across and two up until it lands on Lea's desk.

Lea's particular eyes graze over the projectile momentarily. The rapidly moving gel-ink ball pen formerly flying across her spiral notebook stops abruptly on a comma.

Bradin observes Lea's reaction intently, mentally willing her to pick up the note.

Her head remains bent towards her notes, her eyes darting around furtively.

She hates this-- all of it, every single miniscule detail regarding the situation.

She hates not speaking to Bradin. She hates fighting with her brother. She hates being angry with two of the most important people in her life. She also hates waking up at the crack of dawn to get to school thirty minutes early.

But as much as she hates being angry, she still is.

For one second, she pauses on Bradin's watching stare. He raises his eyebrows anxiously. Lea narrows her eyes at him, and with a quick flick of the wrist, she propels the small square to the corner of her desk.

Bradin's eyes fall.

She groans quietly to herself, slightly rolling her eyes as she continues to injudiciously jot down messy notes. How dare he look so... so _adorable_ while moping!

Lea spends the rest of her period with her left hand on her cheek and right hand continuously scribbling so she wouldn't have to look in Bradin's direction.

Thirty minutes later, a monotonous yet vociferous buzz signified the end of first period.

Lea hastily stuffs her notebook into her backpack, but when she stands up to leave the room, she finds herself blockaded by a blue-eyed blonde 5'8" barricade.

She attempts to side step around him, but the barricade is not only half a foot taller than her, it also has an automatic motion sensor.

"Lea--" The barricade speaks.

She keeps her eyes glued to the floor.

"Oh c'mon, don't give me the silent treatment. Yell! Scream! Punch me! Anything but this. You not talking to me is like sucking the oxygen out of my air."

Lea raises her head to meet Bradin's gaze, but only because if she keeps her head down any longer her neck might develop a permanent crick; not because she wants to see whether or not he looks good frowning.

"Lea. I'm sorry. Talk to me."

She blinks slowly and deliberately, resolute in her preference for silence.

"Fine, but I'm not letting you go until we talk."

Lea's eyes narrow crossly, "you've already insulted my character and injured my brother, do you really think it's wise to be the reason why I'm tardy for second period?"

Bradin doesn't know whether to be annoyed or to smile. He's desperate for her forgiveness and all she cares about is her attendance record? "Look, Lea. I'm sorry. To the millionth power."

"For making me late? Or for accusing me of liking Lucas? Or maybe for my brother's swollen jaw? So many choices, so little time, which one is it gonna be Bradin?"

"Uh, all of the above?" Bradin answers uncertainly. "Look, I just..., I wasn't thinking."

"Oh! You weren't thinking!" Lea exclaims sarcastically. "So hitting my brother and being a jealous boyfriend is some kind of involuntary reflexive instinct for you?"

"Yes! No! I mean..."

"Okay, you're going to have to pick one."

"J.B. just said some stuff that just..., really got to me."

"Like what?" Lea inquires, unable to keep the genuine curiosity out of her voice.

"Like...," Bradin begins to tell her that he got upset because J.B. said that Lea would never love him, but the words are strangely difficult to get out. "Stuff."

"Stuff? Oh, that makes the entire confrontation completely lucid, just crystal clear now! How could I not have seen it before?" Lea smacks her forehead in a mocking movement. "Remind me to take boy-speak for my elective next semester, because maybe then we can converse."

"No!" Bradin exclaims.

"No?" Lea frowns, he won't remind her?

"No!" Bradin repeats, wishing that he didn't sound so much like a parrot.

"No." Lea states, fine then, she'll just have to write herself a note.

"Yes." Bradin nods, he needs to make her understand.

"We just can't seem to make up our minds today, can we?" Lea throws her hands up in the air.

Bradin draws a deep breath. "Lea, look, I'm sorry I lost my temper and hit J.B. I'm sorry for saying those things to you- - it's just that, I wanted you to take my side, but I also know that it's not fair to make you _pick_ a side. But I really wasn't trying to hurt you."

"And J.B.?"

"Well, I may have been trying to hurt him, just a little."

Lea's eyes widen disapprovingly.

"Momentary insanity?" Bradin defends quickly.

"Touché."

"I'm really, really sorry."

Lea inwardly groans. She wants to tell him off. She wants to tell him how much his accusations hurt her and how inappropriate the way he handled her brother was. But it's awfully tricky to stay angry at Bradin when his sparkling ocean blue eyes are peering up at her through long lashes.

"C'mon Lea, you can't stay mad forever." Bradin says in his best pitiful voice, making a move to take her hand.

Lea thinks about pulling her hand away, but Bradin's hands are so warm, and it is so cold today, under 70 degrees in fact, after all, it is December.

Bradin raises his head and gives her the tiniest smile.

Lea rolls her eyes in disgust at her own weak will. "I can stay mad forever. If I wanted to." She points out ineffectively.

"But you don't want to." Bradin shakes his head as he takes a step towards her.

"Only because my aura just got back from its bimonthly cleaning." She has to have the last word.

He sweeps her up into his arms. As they hug, he notices how small she seems in his arms-- as if she would fall through his embrace if he didn't cling on tight enough. "I hated you being mad at me."

"I hated being mad." She answers, her voice muffled from speaking into his sweater.

"Can we never fight again?"

Lea pauses for a second, before answering. "I don't know. What are your thoughts on the portrayal of 19th century gender stereotypes in the Bronte novels and Victorian chauvinism? Because I always thought that--"

Before she elaborates any more auxiliary details about Currer, Ellis, and Acton, Bradin pulls her towards him by lightly grabbing the back of her nape. He crooks his head and brushes his lips lightly across hers. Lea wraps her arms around his waist, angling her face to meet his. She feels her breath being swept away.

Just as Lea's heart begins to beat too fast to be considered healthy, above their heads, a familiar ring interrupts their make-up session, or more fittingly, their make-out session.

"Oh crap!" Lea pulls away with a disturbed frown.

"You should have told me earlier if I'm that bad of a kisser."

"No! Not at all! It's just that... that was the tardy bell for second period! And I have marine bio, and that's on the other side of the school...,"

"Lea, you have like, 99% in that class!"

"And I'd like to keep it that way!" She tells him as she drags him out of the classroom.

Hand in hand, they walk together until they reach a figurative fork in the road, where Lea must exit the towards the science building.

"So, I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, later." She gives him the smile that manages to make him see stars every time.

"Oh, and Lea?"

"Yeah?"

"So what was that about me, being not at all that bad of a kisser?" Bradin asks with an impish smile.

"Don't push your luck!" Lea shakes her head, warm silvery hazel-green eyes rolling as she pushes through the double doors.

* * *

Lea sat leaning against a wall, facing Bradin. One of his hands is behind her head, running through her hair, and the other hand is around her waist on the her lower back. Lea's hands are wrapped around Bradin's neck, and their tongues are intertwined as their lips worked furiously against each other.

Callie and Adam stare at them for two seconds before sitting down at their usual lunch table.

"Why do they even bother buying lunch? They're, like, eating each other's faces."

"I don't know. I can't imagine that it'd be tastier than mystery meat loaf."

"Maybe it's an acquired taste."

"Must be."

"How are we supposed to eat with them devouring each other's faces right here?"

"You tell me. We just better do it fast, because I'm going to need time to run to the bathroom and majorly heave before 5th period."

Their discouraging conversation fails to daunt the couple in love, who maintain the lip lock until their brains scream out for oxygen, forcing them to break for air.

Adam snorts rudely, "And here I thought they've managed to devolve towards efficient epithermal respiration, you know, like earthworms."

"Aren't earthworms unisexual?" Callie frowns. "Or asexual?" Biology is not her best subject.

"Apparently, these two are neither." Adam observes.

Unable to hear, see, or really notice anyone other than each other, Bradin presses his forehead against Lea's.

"I missed you." Bradin tells her breathlessly.

"Me too." Lea replies, equally breathless.

Callie rolls her eyes as she attacks her carrots, "they weren't talking for like, 16 hours, tops."

"I felt so bad." Bradin says

"I know what you mean. Plus J.B. and I were fighting at home... it was pretty stark at the Noel dinner table last night." Lea pouts slightly.

"What did you guys fight about?" Bradin asks densely.

"Dirty money in the Republican campaign." Lea frowns sideways sarcastically, "you! You dork!"

"You fought with J.B. about me?" Bradin repeats, slowly letting the significance of that occurrence sink in, feeling guilty and somewhat important at the same time. Lea and J.B. never _fought_ about anything, they argue and analyze heatedly, but he knows that they never really fight in the "Mom, ask J.B. to pass the salt," way.

"Yeah. I mean you are definitely an ass for hitting him. But I know he hasn't been Pollyanna himself either."

Bradin gazes at Lea adoringly. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. I still expect you to apologize to him."

The adoring gaze morphs quickly into "Are you insane?"

"Bradin," Lea gives him a Please Do It For Me look. "I need you to at least try. It would mean a lot to me."

He rolls his eyes at himself, it's impossible to refuse the look. "Fine."

"Thank you." Her face breaks out in a smile.

"Can I kiss you now?"

"Um...," she smiles as she pretends to consider, "if you must."

"I insist." Bradin grins as he once again captures Lea's lips.

Adam coughs and clears his throat. "Ugh, I had to swallow my own throw-up just now."

Callie looks at Adam, disgusted. "Sign the papers, my appetite has been officially ruined." Callie pushes away her macaroni and cheese.

* * *

After school, Lea accompanies Bradin to his basketball practice.

"I gotta change."

"I'll be in the gym."

"Okay."

"Okay."

In the spaciously vacant gymnasium, Lea waits for J.B.'s arrival. J.B. is always the first one in the gym. And sure enough, he walks in, less than three minutes later, wearing a gray cut-off T-shirt and baggy shiny red basketball shorts, palming the ball in alternate hands.

"J.B.!" Lea springs up from her spot on the bleachers.

"Lea." J.B. answers.

"Look, Bradin's about to come in here in about five minutes."

"Then he'd be three minutes late, practice starts in two minutes." J.B. informs her.

"Okay, shut up." Lea wrings her hands. "J.B., my boyfriend is going to come in here, and he's going to say he's sorry and you're going to tell him, don't sweat it."

"In which alternate universe?"

"J.B., please!"

"Look at this jaw, little sister, I'm sweating quite profusely, and rightly justified so."

She takes a deep breath. "Look, he's going to apologize, and I need you to accept it."

"Why? You seem to be set on dating him with or without my approval."

"True. But I would really appreciate it if you didn't hate him. It would really mean the world to me."

In frustration, J.B. hurls the basketball in his hand at the glass backboard. "Lea, you're going to be in tears at the end of this!"

Lea jumps only slightly at the loud thud. She nods, biting the bottom of her lips. "Yeah. I know. I'll probably be hysterical, and they'll probably have to put me on Prozac and Paxil and Zoloft."

J.B. rolls his eyes.

"But I think it'll be worth it." Lea squeezes out a small smile. "Because my heart jumps into my throat whenever he walks in the room, and... the sun shines a little brighter when he smiles at me, and... and butterflies hatch in my stomach when he says my name. J.B., I can honestly vouch that I like him as much as I like coffee."

"That bad?"

"That good," Lea corrects him almost wistfully.

J.B. sighs, but the look on his sister's face is one so earnest and radiant that even the devil cannot refuse. "I'm not going to say don't sweat it."

"Please?"

"You're going to have to settle for a whatever."

Her face breaks out in a smile. "Whatever is adequate."

"Lea, you know that I don't hate Bradin, right? I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"I know, but I'm not afraid to get hurt J.B. Because you see, I have this older brother who's really overbearingly protective, and insane, and wonderful. And he's going to hold my hand through the twelve step program at the end."

"Great."

"You are."

"I know. I have a fan club to prove it." J.B. informs her matter-of-factly.

Lea rolls her eyes and wrinkles her nose.

They can hear the thudding of basketballs echoing from the hallway.

Bradin walks in with a couple of other boys on the team, wheeling in a rack of basketballs. They disperse themselves amongst the various baskets, warming up and horsing around.

As nonchalantly as possible, Bradin makes his way to J.B. "Hey man,"

J.B. launches a shot from the three-point line.

"Hey J.B., look, I'm sorry."

Another shot flies from J.B.'s fingers. "Whatever."

Bradin exhales, somewhat relieved. At least J.B. didn't exact revenge and pounce on him, shouting expletives. Bradin ventures to let go a jump shot of his own. It spins around the rim and just tips out of the basket.

"You want to roll it off your fingers less and work more on the flick of the wrist."

"What?"

"Your jump shot. It does that because you put too much spin on it. More arc, less spin, higher accuracy."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

"It's not for you. This team is going to be state champion this year, you just happen to be on it."

"Oh."

"Yeah." J.B. frowns at the repetitiveness of their exchange. "So what are you waiting for?"

Bradin looks at J.B., lost. "Huh?"

"Try the shot again!" J.B. looks at Bradin with an annoyingly expectant look.

From the door frame of the gym, Lea looks on happily, a heavy rock finally lifted from her chest.

J.B. watches as Bradin manages to put in a couple more jump shots. This is the boy that his precious little sister likes more than coffee. He's probably one of two people who can understand the significance in that statement. Because his little sister doesn't just _like_ coffee,

she _loves_ it.


	15. Secrets Secrets Are No Fun

"Don't you ever get lost in here?" Bradin amazes at the enormity of the Noel estate from the inside.

Although they've been together for close to three months, this is the first time Bradin has actually been over at the Noel mansionmainly because Lea had always thought that it was wiser to keep Bradin away from J.B.'s permanent place of residence.

Lea, Bradin, Adam, and Callie are all at Lea's house on a random day during winter vacation, attempting to cure the boredom that lulls in those five days in between Christmas and New Year's.

"No?" Lea gives him a bewildered sideways glance. In fact, this house is the only place in the world where she can promise not to get lost, despite all of her pathetic lack of direction sense.

"You have to admit, it's pretty gigantic." Callie comments. As one of Lea's close friends, she's visited the mansion several times, even including several sleepovers; but being a small-town girl at heart, she thinks she may always be impressed by its immensity.

"There are bigger houses than this one." Lea says in self-defense.

"Yeah, whatever." Bradin returns his girlfriend's mystified glance.

"Okay, so, where do you want to start?" Lea has promised Bradin a complete tour.

"Kitchen is good." Adam suggests. Although Adam lives in one of the more humble beach abodes, he's been a frequenter of the Noel house since kindergarten, where he and Lea had first become friends—thus the novelty of the house has worn off on him, but the delicacies in the refrigerator never cease to please.

"Okay, kitchen it is." Lea agrees as she leads her friends into the well-lit cooking quarters, adjoined to a casual dining room. "This is our humble galley." She introduces, rolling her eyes. "We have a fridge," she enunciates as a museum curator accent, "a sink, a microwave, and an oven. Well, what do you know! It might just be a normal kitchen!"

"Yeah, except the counter top is imported marble, the fridge and faucet head is made out of like... NASA grade titanium..." Adam sneers jokingly.

"Shut up, Adam! Why are you here anyway? You've seen my house! In fact, you've been coming over here since like, what, first grade?"

Adam has already opened the titanium fridge and begins to scour its contents, pulling out beverages and opening take-out containers. "And from all my years of experience, I can honestly tell you that this is my favorite part of the house!"

"Well, you've always been easily amused." Lea makes a face at him.

"Whatever, move the expedition along, Meriwether." Adam helps himself to some cheese cubes and soda.

"Okay, there are three stories, seven wings, but we only really use, like, half of those." Lea explains, mainly to Bradin as she leads them towards the library.

"Of course, she starts us off in the most exciting part of the house." Adam rolls his eyes as he can tell where they're going.

Lea makes a face at him. "This is my dad's study is, here is the library."

They pass back through the casual dining room adjoined to the kitchen, moving towards the other extreme of the house. "This is the entertainment wing. Game room. Theater." Lea pushes open each door as she describes their uses.

Lea leads them back towards a flight of stairs. As they ascend, Lea explains that the second floor is all bedrooms, separated into three wingsone where her and J.B.'s bedroom is, the middle wing is where her parents' bedroom is, and the third is the guest wing.

"That's J.B.'s room, this is mine." She points to two doors, J.B.'s is half closed, while her own doors is open.

Callie leaves them for Lea's room, and she flops herself onto Lea's chenille armchair. "Oh, my favorite chair!"

Bradin stands in the hallway, wondering in his mind whether or not J.B. is home. Though they now are operating on a makeshift, awkward truce, he isn't sure how J.B. will react to finding Bradin in Lea's room.

Adam stands silently next to Bradin, staring off into space, particularly in the direction of one of the doors in between Lea and Bradin's rooms.

Bradin soon takes notice of this, and looks from his friend to the closed door in the middle of the hallway. "Whose room is that?" He asks.

Adam absentmindedly answers, "Tristan's."

Lea nudges Adam sharply.

"Who's Tristan?" Bradin asks, his interest peaked by Lea's abrupt reaction.

Lea sniffs. "My dad's god son," she says simply. Brushing past Bradin, she joins Callie in her room, furtively checking to see if there is anything she should stash away before her boyfriend enters her room for the first time. "This is my room."

Her peculiar reaction slightly registers on Bradin's radar, but

"What's on the third floor?" Bradin asks as he walks into Lea's room.

"My mom's workshop, and the annex."

"What's in the annex?"

"It's Lea's annex, so I'll give you one guess."

"You have _more_ books?" Bradin exclaims, wondering how that is possible since the library downstairs has floor to ceiling bookshelves, and this house have very high ceilings.

"A few."

"Few hundred." Adam quips.

"So I guess you don't want to see the annex." Lea assumes. "What do you guys want to do now?"

"Let's watch DVDs." Callie suggests.

"We watched movies yesterday."

"_Too Fast Too Furious_ is not a movie. It's a compilation of raunchy shots of half-dressed girls and blurry shots of hazardous cars." Callie tells him.

"Whatever," Adam shakes his head.

Callie springs up from the armchair, "I want to pick the movie this time." She runs out of the room.

Bradin gets up to follow her, "dude, I'm not watching _10 Things I Hate About You_ again."

Lea smiles, "okay, well, you go try and prevent the Heath Ledger marathon, and I'll go get snacks."

"Hey, bring me another Cherry Coke," Adam says.

"Last time I checked, you know where the refrigerator is." Lea narrows her eyes at him.

The three of them troop downstairs, Lea and Adam heading towards the kitchen, and Bradin on his way to hide any DVDs that credit Freddie Prinze Jr., Heath Ledger, or Josh Hartnett.

As Bradin descends down the stairs, he catches the middle bedroom in the corner of his eye again, and something about the mere existence of the room just doesn't sit well with him, as if there were too many secrets behind the closed door.

In the kitchen, Lea immediately turns on Adam. "Adam!"

"What?"

"You have a big mouth!"

"It's just a room. Calm down!" Adam says with his head stuck in the refrigerator.

"I'm calm!" Lea insists.

"You're never calm when it's about Tristan." Adam says as he pulls out a bag of banana chips.

"That is not fair!" Lea protests.

Adam lets out an exasperated sigh. "Cleopatra, Queen of Denial."

Lea avoids looking at Adam by busying herself with pouring yogurt covered pretzels into a glass bowl.

"Have you talked to him lately?" Adam asks after washing down the banana chips with a swig of apple juice.

Lea bites her bottom lip slightly, and nods forcefully.

"So he knows," Adam gulps, "about Bradin."

Lea inhales sharply and nods again.

"But Bradin doesn't know," Adam puts down the glass, "about Tristan."

"Well, you just told him!" Lea now moves on to arranging a plate of vegetable sticks.

"He does _know _know." Adam defends himself.

Lea shoves the pre-packaged carrots back into the refridgerator as she puts on the finishing touches, "no, he doesn't _know _know."

"You should tell him."

"I should."

"But... you won't."

"You don't know that."

"I do."

"This is exactlywhat happened with Lucas." Adam softly reminds Lea.

"Lucas and I are better off as friends anyways."

"But I doubt..."

Callie interrupts their conversation by bursting into the kitchen, as Lea begins to arrange frozen Pizza Bites on a microwaveable plate. "Lea! I can't find the disk for _Clueless_."

"Thank God." Adam grumbles.

Callie shoots him an evil look.

Lea places the plate into the microwave. "I think it might be upstairs." Lea steps into the hallway and yells towards the theater room, "Bradin, Callie can't find the _Clueless_ DVD!"

"I'll go check upstairs." Bradin volunteers, thinking maybe he can come back down and pretend that the disc has vanished into thin air and salvage himself from two hours of neural anesthesia.

Bradin makes his way towards Lea's bedroom in the right wing of the second floor. As he climbs up the stairs, that closed door of the middle bedroom filters into his view.

Decency tells him to leave well enough alone, it's just another unused bedroom in the vast mansion. But curiosity asks too many imaginative questions.

Without so much as a making a squeak, Bradin cracks open the door of the middle bedroom. The room behind the entrance is spacious and neat; the décor mainly of navy and white. The desk is impeccably tidy, with a silver picture frame sitting next to the lamp. Several thick hardbacks are stacked at the center of the desk, all are bounded, historical looking volumes.

The closet is not completely closed, and Bradin can spy the contents inside. Numerous collared shirts, pairs of pants still underneath the dry-cleaning plastic, two sets of starched suits, and a pair shiny Kenneth Coles. Basically, it looks like the stock room of J. Crew.

Bradin works his way towards the depth of the bedroom, where the bed is. It's a queen sized cabin style bed made of light wood. Displayed on the headstand are several classic frames. Bradin handles them carefully.

The face in the picture is unfamiliar. It's a boy in a navy lapel school blazer, light blue shirt, and light blue tie with navy diagonal stripes. His short, brown-blonde hair is slightly disheveled, the cheekbones are chiseled, and a pair of intense brown eyes stare out from the frame.

In the adjacent frame is the same face, a couple years older, dressed in sharply pressed khaki colored attire, with several stars and patches on the shoulder and pocket edges.

The last photo is in a pewter frame that handles heavily in Bradin's hand when he picks it up. He examines this portrait more carefully than the rest, because of the interesting, and familiar face looking back at him from the print.

The hair is different, at slightly above shoulder-length and with bangs; the fashion is formal; the smile is rather shy. But the eyes are the same, the same distinct shade of mercury hazel green. It's a two-shot of Lea and the boy from the former pictures, they face each other, most likely caught in a moment during a dance.

Something about the picture caught Bradin's attention terrifically. It might be the foreign engraving sprawled around the heavy pewter frame like crawling ivy. Or the way the lights dance in the dark backdrop of the ocean at night. Or maybe it's the way the boy is gazing down at his present girlfriend. And maybe it's the way she's looking back at him.

"What are you doing in here?"

Bradin jumps at the unexpected passer-by. He turns around to meet the narrowed eyes of J.B.

"Oh, uh, sorry." Bradin mumbles. "I was, um, looking for Lea's room."

"Well, this isn't it."

"No, I guess not." Bradin says. "Uh, so, whose room is this?" He asks casually.

"My god brother's." J.B. answers. "Tristan's," Bradin is told for the second time.

"Oh," Bradin replies, trying his best to sound as if he isn't disappointed at J.B.'s vague and non-informational answer.

"He used to spend a lot of time with us." J.B.'s eyes focus on the object in Bradin's hand, without further speculation, he already knows what it is.

Noticing J.B.'s awareness, Bradin puts down the picture frame.

J.B. stares at the print now back in its rightful place on the head stand. "That's from like, a year ago? Tristan and Lea."

"Oh." Bradin says again. "I thought Lea went out with Lucas…" Bradin's voice trails off, he was just reconfirmed in his belief that he hates the sound of Lea's name combined with anyone else but his.

"Yeah, the Star Wars Duo was like, during their freshmen year in high school, so… two years ago? Tristan… well, Tristan we've known since we were still in cribs and high chairs."

"Oh." Bradin sounded a little relieved, "so it's like that kind of relationship, not as if they were together?"

"Together?" J.B. repeats, "not together like you guy, no." But in his tone, Bradin can tell that J.B. means, "they were together, just not in the way that your conventional definition."

"Anyway, Lea's room is next door." Knowing that he's already said too much, and that Bradin's already seen too much, J.B. crooks his head towards the door.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." Bradin hurries away.

Bradin slowly approaches the TV in Lea's room, turning on the DVD player to check if Callie's desired Clueless DVD is there. However, the image of that photograph seems to have been brandished into his mind, so much so that he didn't even notice a petite figure creeping in after him.

"Bradin?" The sound of Lea's voice snapped him back to reality. He immediately whipped around, to see the concerned face of his girlfriend.

Lea gives him a questioning look, "are you okay?"

"Yeah," Bradin answers instinctively.

"I thought you got lost," Lea replies, "or eaten by our secret pet," she adds mischievously.

"Secret pet?" Bradin raises one eyebrow.

"Yeah, the two headed anaconda… or the three headed dog." Lea attempts to copy Bradin, but apparently she is not endowed with the asymmetric facial expression gene.

Bradin, unable to hold back his good-natured laughter, reaches forth and grabs Lea's hand. "Aw, that's cute, baby."

Lea rolls her eyes, "I don't want your sympathy! It's not like a handicap or anything." But she couldn't help pouting just a little, because if there's one thing that Lea hated, it was losing, even if it's just at facial expressions.

"So are there any other secrets about this house I should know about? Trap doors? Hidden safe boxes?" Bradin teases as he pulls Lea into an embrace.

"…no." Lea answers, glad at this moment that she's a good five inches shorter than Bradin, and with her face buried in his chest, there's no way he can see the obvious uncertainty in her eyes.

Gingerly, Bradin asks, with his cheek resting on Lea's head, "So… no like, secret house guests?"

* * *

It's been revived! I never really stopped writing this story but i stopped updating because I had began to write anachronologically, thus it became hard to decide what I wanted to upload. So i'm sorry if this chapter is a sudden jump from the last one. Maybe one day I'll come back and fix it. Hopefully people are still willing to read despite the deviance from how the show is going now! 


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